Stuff like this makes me sad. The MTV-ization of gaming culture has begun and it's not pretty. The people Spike, G4, and MTV call "gamers" are not the kids that grew up playing Nintendo; they're the kids that grew up beating up the kids that played Nintendo. This is the demographic whose entire gaming universe consists of Madden, GTA, and Tony Hawk.
It's fake enthusiasm, style over substance, blatant product placement, EXTREME! everything bullcrap. Watch an episode of The Screen Savers on G4 if you want to know what I'm talking about. Now that the pointy-hairs have finished lobotomizing the show, the new hosts haven't figured out that reading the teleprompter VERY! ENTHUSIASTICALLY! is no substitute for knowing about or giving a damn about what they're reading. It's acutely unwatchable.
I think I understand now how the old-school punk rockers felt when their culture got subverted by the unceasing quest for corporate profits.
Don't believe the FUD. Bush is not against stem cell research. He has prevented such research that involves the destruction of human embryos from receiving federal funding. Research involving stem cells from adults, animals, and cord blood, which are all highly promising, is federally funded and ongoing.
This PA seems to fit pretty well. The G4 people act as though they wouldn't know a game if it bit them on the ass.
G4 only seems interested in getting whatever second-rate celebs they can corral, shoving controllers in their hands, and trying to pass them off as "gamers"...
Well, from a site I randomly googled, Shuttle mains are about 44s....so, estimating roughly, about fitty-twos should be good enough for a start. With built-in RCS (Reaction Control Spinnaz).
The touchy bit about airbreathers, though (well, one of them) is the tradeoff between the speed you can gain and frictional heating. Airbreathers won't do you much good if there's no air. But if you get to going too fast where the atmosphere's thick enough to sustain combustion, you quickly get outside the capabilities of existing materials to keep from melting. It's a tricky balance.
It's cool research, no doubt. But the analyses I've seen seem to indicate that with the added weight of the scramjet itself, and the extra thermal protection you need to run one, it ends up being less efficient then just starting from zero-zero (altitude-speed) and carrying more fuel and oxy.
Any team wanting to make an attempt must notify the X-Prize officials at least a month in advance with the launch date and location. I would assume that this information would be released with some fanfare. Since no notification has been made yet, no official flight.
That's not to say they couldn't go to space unofficially, before going for the big money; in fact they probably will, as part of their test series.
Gosh, asking for permission is so hard! It's clearly better to crush their site and potentially make them pay thousands of dollars in bandwidth overages instead.
Risk is fine - flying in space is dangerous. But the Shuttle is inherently unsafe and poses an *unreasonable* risk. It's not just a maintentance issue, it's design, too. The shuttle has things that no manned spacecraft should have:
* Giant wings. This makes the thermal system overcomplicated and fragile, and requires a much longer than required re-entry profile.
* Solid boosters. They fail. You can't turn them off. It's fairly miraculous they've only had one failure.
* No end-to-end abort capability.
I could keep going. There's nothing wrong with wanting to take risks to advance science, but pretending that an unsafe vehicle is an acceptable risk is insane.
So, why exactly was it that NASA wanted to scrap the Hubble?"
How about because the only spacecraft they have available to fix it is a flying deathtrap, and they'd like to kill as few additional astronauts as possible?
If they could figure a way to do it with Soyuzes, great. But don't try to talk NASA into endangering more lives just because you think George Bush is a dick.
(scholarly voice) Lil' Jon : Pardon me, sir, but will this post reflect negatively upon my karma rating? Mod : It depends on if the other moderators find it funny.
(brief pause)
Lil' Jon : What? Mod : It depends on if the other moderators find it funny. Lil' Jon : What? Mod : It depends on if the other moderators find it funny. Lil' Jon : What? Mod: (-1, Troll) Lil' Jon : OKAYYYYYY!
Slashdot Mirror
Stuff like this makes me sad. The MTV-ization of gaming culture has begun and it's not pretty. The people Spike, G4, and MTV call "gamers" are not the kids that grew up playing Nintendo; they're the kids that grew up beating up the kids that played Nintendo. This is the demographic whose entire gaming universe consists of Madden, GTA, and Tony Hawk.
It's fake enthusiasm, style over substance, blatant product placement, EXTREME! everything bullcrap. Watch an episode of The Screen Savers on G4 if you want to know what I'm talking about. Now that the pointy-hairs have finished lobotomizing the show, the new hosts haven't figured out that reading the teleprompter VERY! ENTHUSIASTICALLY! is no substitute for knowing about or giving a damn about what they're reading. It's acutely unwatchable.
I think I understand now how the old-school punk rockers felt when their culture got subverted by the unceasing quest for corporate profits.
--riney
You can remove the word "Pain" from the article title, and still have an accurate statement.
"You have smoked yourself retarded."
--riney
Are you telling me you wouldn't if you had the cash lying around?
--riney
Imagine that.
--riney
Thank God we live in America, not "the world".
--riney
Senior - "I swear, if he don't get this nitrous oxide tank out to paint by tomorrow, Paulie's gonna get my size twelve space boot *in his ass*."
--riney
with a pinch of salt
With a clod of dirt, actually.
--riney
Let's see how long this takes to get modded into the toilet.
It's funny that the article mentions that this law bans "military-style" weapons, because "style" is mostly what this law is about.
From the Beeb article - "The move means that ordinary citizens will be allowed to keep heavy assault weapons in their homes."
Bzzt, wrong, thanks for playing.
Take a look at this page for some interesting info.
http://www.ont.com/users/kolya/
--riney
*gravely voice*
And I don't caaaaaare.... if your cell phone.... has a hard drive in it....
--riney
got a girlfriend
You mispelled "downloaded some porn".
--riney
Don't believe the FUD. Bush is not against stem cell research. He has prevented such research that involves the destruction of human embryos from receiving federal funding. Research involving stem cells from adults, animals, and cord blood, which are all highly promising, is federally funded and ongoing.
--riney
As long as I can look for sailors.
Do you know where I can find sailors?
--riney
Agreed.
This PA seems to fit pretty well. The G4 people act as though they wouldn't know a game if it bit them on the ass.
G4 only seems interested in getting whatever second-rate celebs they can corral, shoving controllers in their hands, and trying to pass them off as "gamers"...
--riney
uh...
uh...
good.
--riney
Well, from a site I randomly googled, Shuttle mains are about 44s....so, estimating roughly, about fitty-twos should be good enough for a start. With built-in RCS (Reaction Control Spinnaz).
*beep*Aww jeah!*beep*
--riney
In a related survey, 60% of dialup internet users were found to be smoking rocks.
--riney
The touchy bit about airbreathers, though (well, one of them) is the tradeoff between the speed you can gain and frictional heating. Airbreathers won't do you much good if there's no air. But if you get to going too fast where the atmosphere's thick enough to sustain combustion, you quickly get outside the capabilities of existing materials to keep from melting. It's a tricky balance.
It's cool research, no doubt. But the analyses I've seen seem to indicate that with the added weight of the scramjet itself, and the extra thermal protection you need to run one, it ends up being less efficient then just starting from zero-zero (altitude-speed) and carrying more fuel and oxy.
--riney
Any team wanting to make an attempt must notify the X-Prize officials at least a month in advance with the launch date and location. I would assume that this information would be released with some fanfare. Since no notification has been made yet, no official flight.
That's not to say they couldn't go to space unofficially, before going for the big money; in fact they probably will, as part of their test series.
--riney
Gosh, asking for permission is so hard! It's clearly better to crush their site and potentially make them pay thousands of dollars in bandwidth overages instead.
--riney
Risk is fine - flying in space is dangerous. But the Shuttle is inherently unsafe and poses an *unreasonable* risk. It's not just a maintentance issue, it's design, too. The shuttle has things that no manned spacecraft should have:
* Giant wings. This makes the thermal system overcomplicated and fragile, and requires a much longer than required re-entry profile.
* Solid boosters. They fail. You can't turn them off. It's fairly miraculous they've only had one failure.
* No end-to-end abort capability.
I could keep going. There's nothing wrong with wanting to take risks to advance science, but pretending that an unsafe vehicle is an acceptable risk is insane.
--riney
So, why exactly was it that NASA wanted to scrap the Hubble?"
How about because the only spacecraft they have available to fix it is a flying deathtrap, and they'd like to kill as few additional astronauts as possible?
If they could figure a way to do it with Soyuzes, great. But don't try to talk NASA into endangering more lives just because you think George Bush is a dick.
--riney
You must be new here. Please report for mandatory DMCA reprogramming doubleplusspeedwise.
--riney
Slay people that can't capitalize or spell, maybe?
--riney
...you can watch two movies at once. Oh boy!
--riney
(scholarly voice)
Lil' Jon : Pardon me, sir, but will this post reflect negatively upon my karma rating?
Mod : It depends on if the other moderators find it funny.
(brief pause)
Lil' Jon : What?
Mod : It depends on if the other moderators find it funny.
Lil' Jon : What?
Mod : It depends on if the other moderators find it funny.
Lil' Jon : What?
Mod: (-1, Troll)
Lil' Jon : OKAYYYYYY!
--riney
(a-skeet skeet skeet skeet)