It seems almost poetic, in a way. He was shuffled into obscurity for trying to become famous. I can't help but feel that, had he remained utterly silent about creating the sculpture, he would be even more famous now. People love discovering unsung heroes, especially on the internet.
I hope they do decide against the F-35 contract. It's ridiculously overpriced for our military, especially given that the F-35s aren't even all that well designed for frozen-weather operations.
Personally, I think Boeing's Super Hornets are a much better offer. Half the projected price, bigger control surfaces for easier landings on ice and better agility in the air, and two engines so that if one stalls in the cold the other can keep the plane going.
I have mod points, but dangit, I just have to say this:
I live in Canada, and I LOVE our government's goofy dedication to making sure we retain military capabilities in the frozen north.
(bit less happy with everything else the gov does, but ehhhh, politics)
Stealth snowmobile? FUND IT! More Icebreakers? FUND IT! New ice-base in the Arctic Circle? DO YOU EVEN NEED TO ASK?!
Honestly, it beats the heck out of invading Iraq.
The story is a bit misleading, by the way. $640,000 is the cost of the development contract, not the price per machine (which will be significantly lower, obviously).
And while we're on that topic, why is always considered a bad thing when wealth redistribution benefits the lower-middle income, but it's a good thing when it benefits the upper 2% (e.g. tax breaks for the wealthy)?
Because some wealthy people own the TV channels that tell us whether or not the tax breaks for wealthy people are awesome?
I know they say they'll be making an island, but that could just be the cover story. If they turn it all into fibreglass/plastic boats, pretty soon they'll have a fleet of little yachts large enough to conquer the seven seas. It's quite insidious, if you stop to think about it.
Really though, I'm sure a bunch of Dutch Architects would never do such a thing. Or would they?! Dun dun dunnnnn...
Wait, what? William Shatner is fluently bilingual in both French and English. He's even better than our current PM, Stephen Harper, was when he became prime minister. (To Harper's credit, he improved massively in a short time afterward)
I ves a beet cunffoosed by thees soobmeessiun, becoose-a it seems tu hefe-a beee trunsleted qooeete-a puurly! Loockeely zee erteecle-a itselff helpffoolly leenks tu a trunsletur, su here-a is zee soommery dune-a reeght:
Furty-three-a yeers egu, beffure-a must peuple-a hed ifer heerd ooff zee Mooppets, IBM cuntrected veet Jeem Hensun fur a sereees ooff shurt feelms thet it used tu idoocete-a und interteeen its seles steffff. Zeese-a leettle-a-knoon mufeees — sume-a ooff vheech feetoore-a cootteeng-idge-a ooffffeece-a ootumeshun iqooeepment sooch es fery ierly vurd-prucesseeng systems — remeeen fresh, foonny, und soorpreesingly irreferent. Und oone-a ooff zeem feetoores zee furst eppeerunce-a ooff zee Cuukeee-a Munster, vhu gut hees beeg breek oon Seseme-a Street a cuoople-a ooff yeers leter.
I'm always surprised how many people have managed to sub in different music behind Rick Astley singing that. I've seen a few videos like that over the years... some worked, and some definitely didn't.
The most creative rickroll I've ever seen is the PaintRoll, which is a rickroll done in, yes, freakin' Mario Paint.
Why yes, I DO go to youtube.com for all my firefox plugins! I imagine it will be extremely satisfying to finally have something that will protect me from rickrolls, once I get around to clicking on that link.
Hmmm. Does that mean I should rename the passwords.txt file I have on my desktop? Maybe something like kittens.txt? That sounds more secure to me. What do you think?
Neat. There is one problem, though: How are the Ori props going to sell, when so many Stargate fans don't believe that they exist?:p
Actually, perhaps that could be a selling point. I can see more than one use for being invisible to the hardcore fans. For example, Amanda Tapping could certainly use a Prior's Staff, judging by some of the comments here.;)
The world is also full of ineffective doctors, the kind who send off a blood test and pronounce you healthy six weeks later despite experiencing constant pain, or who blame swelling on water retention or menopause or a fatty diet, or who think migraine headaches are "stress related", or who cut a mole out and tell you it looks pretty harmless, then call back later to tell you they need to cut some more out because it was malignant, or who don't know the symptoms to a thyroid condition, or who... yeah, I think that's enough examples for now.
They have much better PR than the hypochondriacs, though. I seem to meet quite a few "hypochondriacs" these days.
I've got good news for you from Air Canada, then! Some time in the next year, they'll be adding a "Sealed in Carbonite" option for riding their planes. I imagine they'll start phasing out the old plane travel models soon as well, as this is apparently very space efficient and nearly 100% terrorist-proof!
As a Canadian, I feel there's only one rational response to the Russians taking our magnetic north pole (which is sort of owned by the whole of humanity and indeed the planet itself, but has been held in our trust for some time).
All out nuclear war.
And the only downside is nuclear winter! Winter! We can handle a few more months of that each year, easy. It's win-win, really!
Not.kml, no. Prior to 2000 the information was stored on.elf files, which are proprietary to the North Pole. They've been in use for centuries, but a.elf generally causes problems on newer computers, so.kml is more widely used now.
Case in point, I just realized that "Her teacher back in 70-something told her the the test was total bunk and to ignore it, because he intended to." should come before "Her most recent attempt at an IQ test landed her somewhere in the 130 range, I think." Because with the current wording, it makes him sound like he was calling her stupid, which he was not. Now perhaps I should bring up Hitler, to really stick my foot in my mouth.
Keep in mind that tests from other eras (let's say the 80s and backwards, just for simplicity) were significantly skewed towards male-oriented views of intelligence. I'm not saying they were sexist: Just that in some cases the men writing the tests couldn't conceive how the correct answer could be other than the one they intended. We have a lot more studies now showing different methods of thinking, and a lot more respect for intelligence in social situations as well as academic ones. My mother, for example, scored 78 on an IQ test back in the 1970s, despite a grade average of A's and B's. Her most recent attempt at an IQ test landed her somewhere in the 130 range, I think. Her teacher back in 70-something told her the the test was total bunk and to ignore it, because he intended to.
It's not just limited to IQ tests, but essentially, generations of women have grown up thinking they're less "intelligent" than men... but with a very academic definition of intelligence.
If someone wants to launch a counter-study, try replacing the term "intelligence" in this study with "common sense". I'd be willing to bet the results would be sharply reversed, even among men reporting their own levels of "common sense". Just a hunch.
Slashdot Mirror
From convex, to flat, to concave TVs, all in the last 50 years! Progress is a sweet thing, my friends.
You know what? I predict that, by 2050, we will all be using donut-shaped screens, to better utilize our ear-vision for maximum possible immersion.
Indeed.
It seems almost poetic, in a way. He was shuffled into obscurity for trying to become famous. I can't help but feel that, had he remained utterly silent about creating the sculpture, he would be even more famous now. People love discovering unsung heroes, especially on the internet.
I hope they do decide against the F-35 contract. It's ridiculously overpriced for our military, especially given that the F-35s aren't even all that well designed for frozen-weather operations.
Personally, I think Boeing's Super Hornets are a much better offer. Half the projected price, bigger control surfaces for easier landings on ice and better agility in the air, and two engines so that if one stalls in the cold the other can keep the plane going.
I live in Canada, and I LOVE our government's goofy dedication to making sure we retain military capabilities in the frozen north. (bit less happy with everything else the gov does, but ehhhh, politics)
Stealth snowmobile? FUND IT! More Icebreakers? FUND IT! New ice-base in the Arctic Circle? DO YOU EVEN NEED TO ASK?!
Honestly, it beats the heck out of invading Iraq.
The story is a bit misleading, by the way. $640,000 is the cost of the development contract, not the price per machine (which will be significantly lower, obviously).
And while we're on that topic, why is always considered a bad thing when wealth redistribution benefits the lower-middle income, but it's a good thing when it benefits the upper 2% (e.g. tax breaks for the wealthy)?
Because some wealthy people own the TV channels that tell us whether or not the tax breaks for wealthy people are awesome?
Jeez, lighten up folks. It's obviously just a misfile due to a lack of punctuation in the slashdot categories.
I mean, we all know Climate-Altering Laser Doomsday Device stories are supposed to be filed under SCIENCE!!!
And mispronouncing Iraq as "eye-rack" is the only thing that sets us apart from the dreaded Punners. :)
I know they say they'll be making an island, but that could just be the cover story. If they turn it all into fibreglass/plastic boats, pretty soon they'll have a fleet of little yachts large enough to conquer the seven seas. It's quite insidious, if you stop to think about it.
Really though, I'm sure a bunch of Dutch Architects would never do such a thing. Or would they?! Dun dun dunnnnn...
Wait, what? William Shatner is fluently bilingual in both French and English. He's even better than our current PM, Stephen Harper, was when he became prime minister. (To Harper's credit, he improved massively in a short time afterward)
I ves a beet cunffoosed by thees soobmeessiun, becoose-a it seems tu hefe-a beee trunsleted qooeete-a puurly! Loockeely zee erteecle-a itselff helpffoolly leenks tu a trunsletur, su here-a is zee soommery dune-a reeght:
Furty-three-a yeers egu, beffure-a must peuple-a hed ifer heerd ooff zee Mooppets, IBM cuntrected veet Jeem Hensun fur a sereees ooff shurt feelms thet it used tu idoocete-a und interteeen its seles steffff. Zeese-a leettle-a-knoon mufeees — sume-a ooff vheech feetoore-a cootteeng-idge-a ooffffeece-a ootumeshun iqooeepment sooch es fery ierly vurd-prucesseeng systems — remeeen fresh, foonny, und soorpreesingly irreferent. Und oone-a ooff zeem feetoores zee furst eppeerunce-a ooff zee Cuukeee-a Munster, vhu gut hees beeg breek oon Seseme-a Street a cuoople-a ooff yeers leter.
These guys take themselves waaay too seriously.
Who?
The XKCD fans who create a wikipedia page about a word that didn't exist until yesterday?
Or the Wikipedia admins who delete a page about a word that didn't exist until yesterday?
To be honest, I think both groups take themselves a bit too seriously. See that talk page in the summary? Yikes.
Wait...
Since today is April 1st, doesn't this mean France has just banned tomorrow?! It's the second and way more stable version of today!
Now how will the madness end!? April 3rd? THERE IS NO APRIL THIRD!
I believe the correct translation for that here in Canada is "Sorry, eh?"
We get a lot of use out of the phrase, I'm sure you can imagine.
That someone else would be very poor, though.
(Moreso than a writer is by default, I mean.)
Also, that someone else wouldn't have a Razzie. Awards are awards! They're like videogame achievements. Gotta collect em all! Even the crazy ones!
I'm always surprised how many people have managed to sub in different music behind Rick Astley singing that. I've seen a few videos like that over the years... some worked, and some definitely didn't.
The most creative rickroll I've ever seen is the PaintRoll, which is a rickroll done in, yes, freakin' Mario Paint.
Why yes, I DO go to youtube.com for all my firefox plugins! I imagine it will be extremely satisfying to finally have something that will protect me from rickrolls, once I get around to clicking on that link.
Hmmm. Does that mean I should rename the passwords.txt file I have on my desktop? Maybe something like kittens.txt? That sounds more secure to me. What do you think?
Neat. There is one problem, though: How are the Ori props going to sell, when so many Stargate fans don't believe that they exist? :p
Actually, perhaps that could be a selling point. I can see more than one use for being invisible to the hardcore fans. For example, Amanda Tapping could certainly use a Prior's Staff, judging by some of the comments here. ;)
The world is also full of ineffective doctors, the kind who send off a blood test and pronounce you healthy six weeks later despite experiencing constant pain, or who blame swelling on water retention or menopause or a fatty diet, or who think migraine headaches are "stress related", or who cut a mole out and tell you it looks pretty harmless, then call back later to tell you they need to cut some more out because it was malignant, or who don't know the symptoms to a thyroid condition, or who... yeah, I think that's enough examples for now.
They have much better PR than the hypochondriacs, though. I seem to meet quite a few "hypochondriacs" these days.
I've got good news for you from Air Canada, then! Some time in the next year, they'll be adding a "Sealed in Carbonite" option for riding their planes. I imagine they'll start phasing out the old plane travel models soon as well, as this is apparently very space efficient and nearly 100% terrorist-proof!
As a Canadian, I feel there's only one rational response to the Russians taking our magnetic north pole (which is sort of owned by the whole of humanity and indeed the planet itself, but has been held in our trust for some time).
All out nuclear war.
And the only downside is nuclear winter! Winter! We can handle a few more months of that each year, easy. It's win-win, really!
Not .kml, no. Prior to 2000 the information was stored on .elf files, which are proprietary to the North Pole. They've been in use for centuries, but a .elf generally causes problems on newer computers, so .kml is more widely used now.
Indeed. The scientific value of alien life is immense, rivalled only by its potential for deliciousness.
Case in point, I just realized that "Her teacher back in 70-something told her the the test was total bunk and to ignore it, because he intended to." should come before "Her most recent attempt at an IQ test landed her somewhere in the 130 range, I think." Because with the current wording, it makes him sound like he was calling her stupid, which he was not. Now perhaps I should bring up Hitler, to really stick my foot in my mouth.
Keep in mind that tests from other eras (let's say the 80s and backwards, just for simplicity) were significantly skewed towards male-oriented views of intelligence. I'm not saying they were sexist: Just that in some cases the men writing the tests couldn't conceive how the correct answer could be other than the one they intended. We have a lot more studies now showing different methods of thinking, and a lot more respect for intelligence in social situations as well as academic ones. My mother, for example, scored 78 on an IQ test back in the 1970s, despite a grade average of A's and B's. Her most recent attempt at an IQ test landed her somewhere in the 130 range, I think. Her teacher back in 70-something told her the the test was total bunk and to ignore it, because he intended to.
It's not just limited to IQ tests, but essentially, generations of women have grown up thinking they're less "intelligent" than men... but with a very academic definition of intelligence.
If someone wants to launch a counter-study, try replacing the term "intelligence" in this study with "common sense". I'd be willing to bet the results would be sharply reversed, even among men reporting their own levels of "common sense". Just a hunch.