In honor of your 4-digit UID, I'll summarize it for you:
Dude #1: [pointing to big shiny on the wall]"Check out my new 1080p HDTV."
Dude #2: "1080p? Why, that's over TWICE the horizontal pixel count of my cell phone, and it almost beats the LCD monitor I got in 2004."
Since you have (I hope) enjoyed it in complete plaintext, I presume that's sufficient proof that the story is more important than the resolution at which it is displayed?
With the obvious exception of movies that have very little story, and the special effects are what you want to watch.
In other words, this article is true except for almost all movies released in mainstream theaters in the last decade.
But the majority is simply the exception that proves the rule, in this case... Umm. I guess.
I only asked for the simulation of the sensation, not actual electrocution. What kind of a monster do you think I am? I am aghast!
But, seriously, how many batteries do you think? Are we talking backpack-sized or mount-on-a-roving-killer-enforcement-robot size? We have narrow corridors in our picking bays.
As long as they used the rubber band to strap around the writing arms of all of the Congresscritters so they'd stop mucking up the mission objectives or specifying that the lunch has to consist solely of corn grown in their district, I bet they could do it with just the sack lunch and SCUBA tank.
When people want something bad enough, they'll find a way.
A company I used to work for had a large workforce, mostly modest-paying manufacturing wage jobs. They announced a 400% company match on 401(K) contributions up to 5%, and almost everyone bought in at the full 5%. The company announced how proud they were that their financial seminars had been met with resounding success, and how happy they were to contribute to their employee's retirement. Vesting period was 5 years, rule was that a withdrawal meant 5 years of disqualification from further contributions, followed by a new 5-year vesting period.
Five years and one week later, the parking lot of the plant filled up with gigantic 4WD dual-rear-tire trucks, Corvettes, Mustangs, Land Rovers, and SUVs. Participation in the 401(K) dropped to less than 30% of the company in less than a week. Turns out that a couple of folks had talked to relatives who owned car dealerships, and the really effective "financial seminars" were back-of-the-napkin math proving "(contribution + company match - taxes & penalties) > contribution". A whole lot ">".
A few people I chatted with said they figured they'd probably last about ten years then the "company will buy me a new one again".
A lot of them ended up selling off their new behemoths because of some other simple math.
long commutes + changing to a lower-mileage car + drastically higher insurance rates = no money at the end of the week to pay rent.
Or, if you live too far of the Mason Dixon line, Fahrenheit, for that matter. 12F is cold enough to kill a thin-blooded southerner as dead as 100F would do to thick-blooded me.:)
Are you saying the consumables on board were consumed on schedule, as designed and as expected? STOP THE PRESSES!
NASA's problem is that Spirit and Opportunity lasted so ridiculously long past their stated mission that merely exceeding expectations by a reasonable engineering design factor now looks like newsworthy incompetence.
They should have ended that mission on time by nuking them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
The only thing Star Trek about that film was the ship's name.
Which is exactly the point.
Abrams may or may not still honor Rodenberry's vision, that's still to be determined because the only thing he's done so far is divest himself of the Roddenberry/Berman Trek Universe. He may yet create a consistent and reasonably plausible universe because all he's done so far is make up a plot device that he can make consistent with his universe, and parallel universes are largely a scientific unknown at this point.
He'll surely build something inconsistent with the OLD universe, but his stories are not told in that one.
It's the most masterful "oh-shit-gotta-dig-myself-out-of-this-hole" stroke since they had the sniveling younger character wake up and realize that his pappy, name of "JR", being shot was a dream on that evening soap opera "Dallas". Never watched the show, but I admired the audacity of that stunt.
In "Star Trek: Saving The Whales", a Klingon ship was used to come back and retrieve the whales, right?
The same movie in which Scotty handed transparent aluminum over to the firm that has yet to actually announce it, right (simply demonstrates that some canon already is in disagreement with reality, but I digress).
So, here's your canon hook. There were Klingons on board that ship that Kirk and co failed to notice. They exited the ship on Earth while the camera wasn't pointed at it, took on human disguises, went to the Netherlands, and are now preparing to perform an opera.
There was, until recently, one "canon". Every time a movie came out, the plot invariably ran afoul of the previous fiction base, and trekkie/ers sent forth a shitstorm of "canon busts" where the math didn't add up on transit times between planets, or the Vulcan council didn't vote by majority, or the batleth that so-and-so carried wasn't truly regulation because it had one too many rope wraps around the handle, or whatever. All good fun to read, but I think Paramount was getting annoyed, and JJ Abrams isn't really known for liking to be painted into corners on his plots.
Enter the latest movie.
Red Matter was a brilliant plot device. It basically said that anything that happens in any future Trek movies is based on a universe that split sometime before Kirk got onboard the Enterprise. No canon materials that were written that refer to events or "facts" after that point are valid any more.
Abrams is free to write his own Roddenberry-esque universe that includes different physical laws, different events, different characters, and of course lots of lens flare.
Bet it'll put some paid asses in seats, though. The folks who go to this opera aren't going to get all het up about a funny publicity stunt. Personally, I think it's a hilarious touch, and if you want to compare dick sizes my Trek reference materials and books take up way more than a bookshelf.
PS: "some douchebag"'s name is Marc Okrand. If your shelf of reference materials is filed alphabetically, you might want to look up that name sometime. I think he's earned the right to cash in on a little of the mythos he was instrumental in inventing.
If they're trying to do this "in universe" then they have to trace it to part of the canon.
Says who? "Canon" is itself a work of fiction. You yourself stated this was all fiction and no one should take it seriously, now you're stating that the equally-fictional canon is some sacrosanct concept that should be taken seriously? It's all made up. I'm happy for you that you enjoy it, and Paramount's accounting department is probably even happier. But you've already bought all the books, and they are looking for more people willing to part with their money.
I think the people who own the copyrights and trademarks to the various aspects of the Star Trek universe can pretty much do whatever they want with it. As long as these jamokes pay their licensing fees to Paramount, it's all good, people will have a little fun, and money will be made. That's entertainment.
Actually, the thought just occurred to me that this all could have happened in the new Universe that JJ Abrams created with the whole "red matter"/Universe split/"nanner-nanner-nanner canon does not apply to me any more!" thing in the latest movie. In THAT canon, none of your resource materials apply, so you'd better go get yourself a new bookshelf if you want to continue following "the universe", because it's all changed now.
Or you can just sit back and enjoy the entertainment in all of its fun forms, choosing the ones you like the best, and ignoring the others.
So writing an opera based on the fictional Klingons and asking people to pretend they are real in marketing materials is somehow wrong compared to writing movies based on them and asking people to pretend they are real by purchasing bookshelves of reference materials?
They are different forms of expression inspired by Roddenberry's Star Trek universe. Obviously marketed to a different market segment than the one you are in. Gotta keep milking that there cash cow, and you've bought all the books, so they are moving on to a different audience who might be willing to part with cash. One form of entertainment is not intrinsically better than the other. They are all good fun.
Look, I'm not at all criticizing your fandom. If you enjoy your shelf of reference books, great! But there are other forms of expression that others enjoy, and there's money to be made on them. And in the end, the authors and performers are being paid to entertain, and are trying to find interesting new sources of material.
Operas are written all the time based on Norse mythologies, modern fiction, various religions, and whatever sources the authors think might be interested. Often, the mythos built up around the opera asks the audience to accept the stories as true in order to enjoy the experience. I don't understand how this is different. Klingons, Valkyries, Spirits, or a romanticized version of Vikings, they're all made-up characters that are used as inspirations for opera.
Take the paragraph above and replace "Opera" with "Movie" or "Book" or "TV Series" and it'll read pretty much the same.
Sadly, the Klingons probably will not be in attendance. The invitation was sent by radio-telescope, which suffers from a speed-of-light limitation.
Rest assured, when it arrives, the Klingons will be mighty peeved at our lack of courtesy in neglecting to send it via subspace, and will come and wipe us out. Our only hope is to hold an encore performance upon their arrival and to do a really good job. Then they might allow us to die with honor, as equals, in the field of battle.
Yes. And they serve food that isn't cooked properly and stands a decent chance of killing you. In other words, this is pretty much a normal rock concert except the performers would never bite the heads off a live bat - there's no honor in it.
It must be terrible for you to suffer your inferiors who don't enjoy your specific type of nonproductive entertainment, and instead have discovered their own types of nonproductive entertainment that are unlike your own obviously superior one.
In other words, access to your student records (which probably includes your SSN and lots of other juicy details about you) is worth a payout a scammer probably won't pay anyway.
There are few ISPs because most ISPs are government-enforced monopolies.
For broadband Internet, I have three basic choices:
1. The cable company (government helped pay for the wiring and used eminent domain to purchase easements for same). 2. The phone company (government helped pay for the wiring and used eminent domain to purchase easements for same). 3. Wireless/Cell phone (more independent, but VERY expensive and much slower compared to the other options).
Comcast and Fairpoint are welcome to stop accepting government regulation the instant they refund the government dollars that helped pay for the wires they have up and vacate or allow competitors to use the poles that are placed on government-enforced rights of way.
In the meantime, the wires and the rights-of-way they traverse constitute public resources, and the public has a voice in how they are to be used. The government is the voice of the people in this matter.
If you own a sign, it's yours. You get to alter it, deface it, replace it, do whatever you want with it.
If you don't own a sign, and don't have permission of the owner or some specific sign-maintaining authority, then altering it is an act of vandalism. Your intent is irrelevant. It's not your sign. Don't like it? Too bad. Offer the sign owner some money to replace the sign with one that is to your liking, and maybe they'll take you up on it.
There's a really old-looking hand-carved sign at Yellowstone that talks about the dangers of getting too close to critters. IIRC it's near Old Faithful, but it's been about 10 years since I've been there, so my memory might be bad. The wood is well-weathered, the carving is pretty good, and it's obviously a matter of some effort on the part of the park service to preserve it. Unfortunately, it has a single spelling error (reversal of two letters in a word), and there are various correction marks that have been scratched and scrawled into it over the years that really ruin the look of the sign.
If it's not yours and you haven't been put in charge of maintaining it, keep your markers and tools off it. Please.
Apologies, I may have overstated that for people who do not have any information they feel is confidential on the phone, and possibly misstated it for others.
If your phone has a choice of locking features that includes something other than "draw a picture to unlock", and you have any information on your phone that you'd rather not fall into the hands of strangers, then you should seriously consider switching to the safer security method.
Slashdot Mirror
In honor of your 4-digit UID, I'll summarize it for you:
Dude #1: [pointing to big shiny on the wall]"Check out my new 1080p HDTV."
Dude #2: "1080p? Why, that's over TWICE the horizontal pixel count of my cell phone, and it almost beats the LCD monitor I got in 2004."
Since you have (I hope) enjoyed it in complete plaintext, I presume that's sufficient proof that the story is more important than the resolution at which it is displayed?
With the obvious exception of movies that have very little story, and the special effects are what you want to watch.
In other words, this article is true except for almost all movies released in mainstream theaters in the last decade.
But the majority is simply the exception that proves the rule, in this case... Umm. I guess.
And it always has something appropriate: http://www.xkcd.com/732/
You'd need a pretty hefty battery for that.
I only asked for the simulation of the sensation, not actual electrocution. What kind of a monster do you think I am? I am aghast!
But, seriously, how many batteries do you think? Are we talking backpack-sized or mount-on-a-roving-killer-enforcement-robot size? We have narrow corridors in our picking bays.
As long as they used the rubber band to strap around the writing arms of all of the Congresscritters so they'd stop mucking up the mission objectives or specifying that the lunch has to consist solely of corn grown in their district, I bet they could do it with just the sack lunch and SCUBA tank.
Nicholas Merrill for President... of Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc!!!!
Who's with me?
When people want something bad enough, they'll find a way.
A company I used to work for had a large workforce, mostly modest-paying manufacturing wage jobs. They announced a 400% company match on 401(K) contributions up to 5%, and almost everyone bought in at the full 5%. The company announced how proud they were that their financial seminars had been met with resounding success, and how happy they were to contribute to their employee's retirement. Vesting period was 5 years, rule was that a withdrawal meant 5 years of disqualification from further contributions, followed by a new 5-year vesting period.
Five years and one week later, the parking lot of the plant filled up with gigantic 4WD dual-rear-tire trucks, Corvettes, Mustangs, Land Rovers, and SUVs. Participation in the 401(K) dropped to less than 30% of the company in less than a week. Turns out that a couple of folks had talked to relatives who owned car dealerships, and the really effective "financial seminars" were back-of-the-napkin math proving "(contribution + company match - taxes & penalties) > contribution". A whole lot ">".
A few people I chatted with said they figured they'd probably last about ten years then the "company will buy me a new one again".
A lot of them ended up selling off their new behemoths because of some other simple math.
long commutes + changing to a lower-mileage car + drastically higher insurance rates = no money at the end of the week to pay rent.
I'm thinking "no". Have you seen pictures of Arnie recently?
More like "In the flab on my back, you could say hasta la vista to a baby, or maybe a full-grown man."
Or, if you live too far of the Mason Dixon line, Fahrenheit, for that matter. 12F is cold enough to kill a thin-blooded southerner as dead as 100F would do to thick-blooded me. :)
Are you saying the consumables on board were consumed on schedule, as designed and as expected? STOP THE PRESSES!
NASA's problem is that Spirit and Opportunity lasted so ridiculously long past their stated mission that merely exceeding expectations by a reasonable engineering design factor now looks like newsworthy incompetence.
They should have ended that mission on time by nuking them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
The only thing Star Trek about that film was the ship's name.
Which is exactly the point.
Abrams may or may not still honor Rodenberry's vision, that's still to be determined because the only thing he's done so far is divest himself of the Roddenberry/Berman Trek Universe. He may yet create a consistent and reasonably plausible universe because all he's done so far is make up a plot device that he can make consistent with his universe, and parallel universes are largely a scientific unknown at this point.
He'll surely build something inconsistent with the OLD universe, but his stories are not told in that one.
It's the most masterful "oh-shit-gotta-dig-myself-out-of-this-hole" stroke since they had the sniveling younger character wake up and realize that his pappy, name of "JR", being shot was a dream on that evening soap opera "Dallas". Never watched the show, but I admired the audacity of that stunt.
Can it be modified to present the user with the experience of, say, 1000 volts at about 20 amps?
I'll take 1,000 please.
Just had a thought...
In "Star Trek: Saving The Whales", a Klingon ship was used to come back and retrieve the whales, right?
The same movie in which Scotty handed transparent aluminum over to the firm that has yet to actually announce it, right (simply demonstrates that some canon already is in disagreement with reality, but I digress).
So, here's your canon hook. There were Klingons on board that ship that Kirk and co failed to notice. They exited the ship on Earth while the camera wasn't pointed at it, took on human disguises, went to the Netherlands, and are now preparing to perform an opera.
Happy? :)
It's quite simple.
There was, until recently, one "canon". Every time a movie came out, the plot invariably ran afoul of the previous fiction base, and trekkie/ers sent forth a shitstorm of "canon busts" where the math didn't add up on transit times between planets, or the Vulcan council didn't vote by majority, or the batleth that so-and-so carried wasn't truly regulation because it had one too many rope wraps around the handle, or whatever. All good fun to read, but I think Paramount was getting annoyed, and JJ Abrams isn't really known for liking to be painted into corners on his plots.
Enter the latest movie.
Red Matter was a brilliant plot device. It basically said that anything that happens in any future Trek movies is based on a universe that split sometime before Kirk got onboard the Enterprise. No canon materials that were written that refer to events or "facts" after that point are valid any more.
Abrams is free to write his own Roddenberry-esque universe that includes different physical laws, different events, different characters, and of course lots of lens flare.
Bet it'll put some paid asses in seats, though. The folks who go to this opera aren't going to get all het up about a funny publicity stunt. Personally, I think it's a hilarious touch, and if you want to compare dick sizes my Trek reference materials and books take up way more than a bookshelf.
PS: "some douchebag"'s name is Marc Okrand. If your shelf of reference materials is filed alphabetically, you might want to look up that name sometime. I think he's earned the right to cash in on a little of the mythos he was instrumental in inventing.
If they're trying to do this "in universe" then they have to trace it to part of the canon.
Says who? "Canon" is itself a work of fiction. You yourself stated this was all fiction and no one should take it seriously, now you're stating that the equally-fictional canon is some sacrosanct concept that should be taken seriously? It's all made up. I'm happy for you that you enjoy it, and Paramount's accounting department is probably even happier. But you've already bought all the books, and they are looking for more people willing to part with their money.
I think the people who own the copyrights and trademarks to the various aspects of the Star Trek universe can pretty much do whatever they want with it. As long as these jamokes pay their licensing fees to Paramount, it's all good, people will have a little fun, and money will be made. That's entertainment.
Actually, the thought just occurred to me that this all could have happened in the new Universe that JJ Abrams created with the whole "red matter"/Universe split/"nanner-nanner-nanner canon does not apply to me any more!" thing in the latest movie. In THAT canon, none of your resource materials apply, so you'd better go get yourself a new bookshelf if you want to continue following "the universe", because it's all changed now.
Or you can just sit back and enjoy the entertainment in all of its fun forms, choosing the ones you like the best, and ignoring the others.
So writing an opera based on the fictional Klingons and asking people to pretend they are real in marketing materials is somehow wrong compared to writing movies based on them and asking people to pretend they are real by purchasing bookshelves of reference materials?
They are different forms of expression inspired by Roddenberry's Star Trek universe. Obviously marketed to a different market segment than the one you are in. Gotta keep milking that there cash cow, and you've bought all the books, so they are moving on to a different audience who might be willing to part with cash. One form of entertainment is not intrinsically better than the other. They are all good fun.
Look, I'm not at all criticizing your fandom. If you enjoy your shelf of reference books, great! But there are other forms of expression that others enjoy, and there's money to be made on them. And in the end, the authors and performers are being paid to entertain, and are trying to find interesting new sources of material.
Operas are written all the time based on Norse mythologies, modern fiction, various religions, and whatever sources the authors think might be interested. Often, the mythos built up around the opera asks the audience to accept the stories as true in order to enjoy the experience. I don't understand how this is different. Klingons, Valkyries, Spirits, or a romanticized version of Vikings, they're all made-up characters that are used as inspirations for opera.
Take the paragraph above and replace "Opera" with "Movie" or "Book" or "TV Series" and it'll read pretty much the same.
Sadly, the Klingons probably will not be in attendance. The invitation was sent by radio-telescope, which suffers from a speed-of-light limitation.
Rest assured, when it arrives, the Klingons will be mighty peeved at our lack of courtesy in neglecting to send it via subspace, and will come and wipe us out. Our only hope is to hold an encore performance upon their arrival and to do a really good job. Then they might allow us to die with honor, as equals, in the field of battle.
Yes. And they serve food that isn't cooked properly and stands a decent chance of killing you. In other words, this is pretty much a normal rock concert except the performers would never bite the heads off a live bat - there's no honor in it.
It must be terrible for you to suffer your inferiors who don't enjoy your specific type of nonproductive entertainment, and instead have discovered their own types of nonproductive entertainment that are unlike your own obviously superior one.
I'm over 40, and I've had one. I'm married to her. Why, yes, I am a Blackberry owner, why do you ask? :)
I bet I'm happier than a lot of 19 year olds desperately trying to get their paws on the loneliest/drunkest chick in the bar.
In other words, access to your student records (which probably includes your SSN and lots of other juicy details about you) is worth a payout a scammer probably won't pay anyway.
There are few ISPs because most ISPs are government-enforced monopolies.
For broadband Internet, I have three basic choices:
1. The cable company (government helped pay for the wiring and used eminent domain to purchase easements for same).
2. The phone company (government helped pay for the wiring and used eminent domain to purchase easements for same).
3. Wireless/Cell phone (more independent, but VERY expensive and much slower compared to the other options).
Comcast and Fairpoint are welcome to stop accepting government regulation the instant they refund the government dollars that helped pay for the wires they have up and vacate or allow competitors to use the poles that are placed on government-enforced rights of way.
In the meantime, the wires and the rights-of-way they traverse constitute public resources, and the public has a voice in how they are to be used. The government is the voice of the people in this matter.
annoying and a bit said.
No, they are signs, and therefore not usually verbally expressed. ;)
If you own a sign, it's yours. You get to alter it, deface it, replace it, do whatever you want with it.
If you don't own a sign, and don't have permission of the owner or some specific sign-maintaining authority, then altering it is an act of vandalism. Your intent is irrelevant. It's not your sign. Don't like it? Too bad. Offer the sign owner some money to replace the sign with one that is to your liking, and maybe they'll take you up on it.
There's a really old-looking hand-carved sign at Yellowstone that talks about the dangers of getting too close to critters. IIRC it's near Old Faithful, but it's been about 10 years since I've been there, so my memory might be bad. The wood is well-weathered, the carving is pretty good, and it's obviously a matter of some effort on the part of the park service to preserve it. Unfortunately, it has a single spelling error (reversal of two letters in a word), and there are various correction marks that have been scratched and scrawled into it over the years that really ruin the look of the sign.
If it's not yours and you haven't been put in charge of maintaining it, keep your markers and tools off it. Please.
Apologies, I may have overstated that for people who do not have any information they feel is confidential on the phone, and possibly misstated it for others.
If your phone has a choice of locking features that includes something other than "draw a picture to unlock", and you have any information on your phone that you'd rather not fall into the hands of strangers, then you should seriously consider switching to the safer security method.
Better?