The dose makes the poison. Most people working in buildings with granite sheathing are getting higher gamma doses than nuclear plant workers are allowed by law to be exposed to.
I got into this discussion with some people on another forum the other day. There's a lot of people who regard it as little more than a repository of useless information, but it seems to me that that's more a factor of what sort of information they're looking for. There's a lot of things one there that I personally find pretty trivial, but who cares? It's not like having an exhaustive list of all the Pokemon characters is bothering anyone.
Personally, I find it to be a very useful resource for information on technical topics outside of my field of specialization. I do lots of modeling and conceptualization for games, so it's reeeeally nice to have an easy resource to explain the basics of say 19th century steel production or aircraft engines from the 30s. It's also really cool just to be able to read about a historical event and click a related topic to trace a thread through time. It's not a complete resource, but what is?
The seed drill, actually. Instead of broadcasting seed by hand, it always placed seeds a set distance in the ground, increasing yield substantially. I suppose it has vaguely suggestive connotations...
That was a direct quote from Lars Ulrich from when Tull got the Grammy everyone thought Metallica would get, dude. There's some kind of weird poetic justice here.
The Wacom is a superb interface. It takes awhile to really get used to, but if you work with it long enough to overcome the feeling of parallax it's incredibly intuitive.
Yes, exactly. It's the ephemera that tells you what life was like in any given era, not the palaces, official monuments, etc.
I'll wager you could reconstruct far more about the culture of early 21st century from the contents of a convenience store than that of the White House. There's a big gulf between who a people are and the mask they present to the world.
Many people also have a natural mistrust of moral entepreneurs. I watched large elements of the environmental movement drift from a narrow set of viable and attainable goals to a broader set of political goals that seemed at best impractical and at worst dangerously naive. Frankly, I just didn't tend to believe a damn thing they say anymore. Gore hasn't had any credability with me since the days of the PMRC.
Ultimately, I came to believe in the reality of global warming as well. This was not because of media hysteria, but rather in spite of it. Noone likes being lied to, and they like it least of all when they realize they fell for a lie.
Well, the acting was often terrible. Let's get that out of the way. That wasn't it.
For me, the big appeal was that things of significant scope actually happened and the story progressed and changed with time. At the point that Babylon 5 came out, I was really fed up with the Star Trek franchise: Good acting and effects, but a horribly pedestrian and smarmy humanism seemed to infest most of the writing. It also pulled far too many punches. B5 made the universe seem strange and mysterious again, even if the acting was strictly community theater sometimes. War seemed dangerous, instead of a stageset for some belabored morality tale. It's dumb to say it was better than Star Trek, but B5 really spoke better to the sorts of stories I wanted to hear at that time.
He's not trying to protect anybody. He's using fear to garner attention and increase his prestige to the point he can influence policy. Essentially he's using the nation's own ambivalence about violence, youth, and technology to make him into an important guy. His message is just a sham. A sort of media trojan, if you will.
I'd really love to tie this into the old 'we can't have a nativity display because we can't find three wise men and a virgin here' joke, but it doesn't quite gel.:D
They should sue themselves for being an affluent consumer society with a decentralized infrastructure. While they're at it, they should make being a smug materialist illegal as well.
Slashdot Mirror
The dose makes the poison. Most people working in buildings with granite sheathing are getting higher gamma doses than nuclear plant workers are allowed by law to be exposed to.
I got into this discussion with some people on another forum the other day. There's a lot of people who regard it as little more than a repository of useless information, but it seems to me that that's more a factor of what sort of information they're looking for. There's a lot of things one there that I personally find pretty trivial, but who cares? It's not like having an exhaustive list of all the Pokemon characters is bothering anyone.
Personally, I find it to be a very useful resource for information on technical topics outside of my field of specialization. I do lots of modeling and conceptualization for games, so it's reeeeally nice to have an easy resource to explain the basics of say 19th century steel production or aircraft engines from the 30s. It's also really cool just to be able to read about a historical event and click a related topic to trace a thread through time. It's not a complete resource, but what is?
The seed drill, actually. Instead of broadcasting seed by hand, it always placed seeds a set distance in the ground, increasing yield substantially. I suppose it has vaguely suggestive connotations...
That was a direct quote from Lars Ulrich from when Tull got the Grammy everyone thought Metallica would get, dude. There's some kind of weird poetic justice here.
The Wacom is a superb interface. It takes awhile to really get used to, but if you work with it long enough to overcome the feeling of parallax it's incredibly intuitive.
I would assert that the cookie was actually a fig newton, and a cookie is just a cookie, but a newton is fruit and cake.
Therefore there never was a cookie, QED.
Which is a subset of 'people who have a different working definition of extraordinary' than the observer.
'Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof' is itself an extraordinary claim. ;P
Nice rant, but I was being hyperbolic. ;)
Bitching and moaning about something is far easier than building a working alternative.
...just to spite Al Gore. Mostly because I hate Tipper and her PMRC witchhunt, but I'm kooky like that.
Yes, exactly. It's the ephemera that tells you what life was like in any given era, not the palaces, official monuments, etc.
I'll wager you could reconstruct far more about the culture of early 21st century from the contents of a convenience store than that of the White House. There's a big gulf between who a people are and the mask they present to the world.
Yeah, pretty much. I get older and advance in my line of work, but I feel less certain of everything but liking boobs.
'Those goddamn kids are so stupid today yadda yadda yadda...'
We were all so much smarter at their age, because that's how we care to remember things.
Many people also have a natural mistrust of moral entepreneurs. I watched large elements of the environmental movement drift from a narrow set of viable and attainable goals to a broader set of political goals that seemed at best impractical and at worst dangerously naive. Frankly, I just didn't tend to believe a damn thing they say anymore. Gore hasn't had any credability with me since the days of the PMRC.
Ultimately, I came to believe in the reality of global warming as well. This was not because of media hysteria, but rather in spite of it. Noone likes being lied to, and they like it least of all when they realize they fell for a lie.
Well, the acting was often terrible. Let's get that out of the way. That wasn't it.
For me, the big appeal was that things of significant scope actually happened and the story progressed and changed with time. At the point that Babylon 5 came out, I was really fed up with the Star Trek franchise: Good acting and effects, but a horribly pedestrian and smarmy humanism seemed to infest most of the writing. It also pulled far too many punches. B5 made the universe seem strange and mysterious again, even if the acting was strictly community theater sometimes. War seemed dangerous, instead of a stageset for some belabored morality tale. It's dumb to say it was better than Star Trek, but B5 really spoke better to the sorts of stories I wanted to hear at that time.
Declare victory then get the hell out.
He's not trying to protect anybody. He's using fear to garner attention and increase his prestige to the point he can influence policy. Essentially he's using the nation's own ambivalence about violence, youth, and technology to make him into an important guy. His message is just a sham. A sort of media trojan, if you will.
Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
I'd really love to tie this into the old 'we can't have a nativity display because we can't find three wise men and a virgin here' joke, but it doesn't quite gel. :D
Trick question: California is a prison. ;)
They should sue themselves for being an affluent consumer society with a decentralized infrastructure. While they're at it, they should make being a smug materialist illegal as well.
Maybe Monster Cable will make eggs soon.
If you were wearing the right uniform, they'd probably celebrate you as a hero.
A left handed compliment soaked in irony, yeah.