I imagine this to be on snopes by weeks end. An associate of mine liked to tell stories about his well meaning but not-so-bright grandmother. Particularly the time he was twelve and she bought him a puppy. She lives in New Hampshire - he in North Carolina, so she figures she'd ship it. And she did - in a sealed box. Well the puppy died, but that wasn't enough. It was loaded into the unpressurized cabin of a cargo plane and flown down by an unnamed three letter shipping company with brown trucks. Apparently the depressurization caused the necroticizing lung tissues to rupture, and the uncoagulated blood leaked out it's nose and got all over the stuffing. Luckily, the boys parents noticed a "smell" on receiving the package, and saved him from what would arguably be one of the most fucked up christmases ever. For the happy ending (for everyone but the puppy), the parents got him a puppy two days later, and neither he nor the grandmother knew. He didn't find out until he was 17.
I'm going to connect a few dots here. Persian Gulf. Bought laptops, cellphones for scammers. $320,000 (buys a lot of kalishnakov rifles). Has anyone yet considered that the 419 Scams have evolved from a simple scam, to an urban legend, to a joke, to a sad commentary on the gullability of westerners, and finally, to a viable revenue stream for terrorist organizations?
Given the abject poverty of the third world, they are hardly the cause of all pollution. We in the 'civilized world' pump out way more than our fair share of pollutants. The difference is that we pump out less harmful pollutants. However, it's a little disingenuous to blame the third worlds mass breeding habits for it. The fault is actually the industrialized second world - China and India.
Maybe now all you fools who were so gleefully chanting that Europe was leading the space race (with a single probe, forgetting Phobos, and forgetting the half-dozen US probes that have actually hit the dirt and sent radio signals back) will have a little perspective now. The space race isn't about whose nation gets there first, or who is in the lead, because it's all about humanity. And guess what - failure is not an option, but it is an eventuality.
It's actually a 2002 book, but I believe it's first US printing is 2003, so here goes: "It Must Be Beautiful, Great Equations of Modern Science". Edited by Graham Farmelo, this book is a collection of essays by 11 of todays best and brightest. The readings aren't dry at all, and science/mathematics buffs will be struck by how palatable this book is. For me, it drove home one thing I always knew to be factual, but never considered in philisophical terms, that formulae aren't just tools for calculations, they're expressions of ideas. That point is well made in chapter one when Einstein is compared to Planck, especially in that they both came up with the same E=hf formula, but applied to nearly unrelated areas of physics (cavity radiation vs quantum radiation). Then the point is further illustrated in talking about the Drake equation, a formula well blasted for its uselessness, but highly lauded for it's ability to provoke deep scientific discussion on topics from astrophysics to cosmology to sociology and philosophy.
I'm about half way through this book right now, and I find myself going back to dwell on previous chapters I've already read. While I don't exactly have a hard-on for this book, it is interesting enough that I'd recommend it to anyone with a menial mathematics and physics background who is interested in a new insight into the mundane triviality of text-book errata.
Like, isn't KDE better in many respects? Most. Wait. Gnome sucks. Hey, I've got a great idea, why not make as many desktops as available as possible, and just select one default installed desktop.
If we as Americans want to be morons and outsource software jobs to foreign countries, that's fine. If we can get it done cheaper, then that is the American way. Maybe if we are to be so concerned about it, we would take the step of only buying American made products - including software. But then, and pardon me for lacking my usually jingoistic patriotism here - I don't give a fuck who writes the code behind the software I use, so long as it works for my purposes. If it weren't for foreign programmers, I would'nt be free from microsoft, able to watch DVD's on Linux, or program more efficiently (QT vs.Net, MFC, etc).
I wonder...how many "outsourced" programmers are bitching about their plight while driving their Honda/Kia/Toyota/Nissan/Hyundia/Suzuki/Isuzu/etc. Sure the American automakers might have sympathy - not.
The quantity or quality of the space probes put up by any nation is irrelevent. Exploration of space should be a collective (oh how I hate that word) effort by mankind. But, posters such as you and the root post insist on making it a "us vs the Americans" issue.
As for my post being flamebait, well, you can take it for what it is, but if you insist on calling it bait then you should also cede that you took the bait hook, line, and sinker.
It's insightful because I put back into perspective the notion that there is inherent risk in exploration no matter who is sending up the probes. This is in stark contrast to the original poster who posited that the Americans have (and I fucking quote) "actually lost the edge" to the Europeans because of one damn little mars probe. So, you can take your viking (aka Nordic Pirates) heritage and blow it out of your nationalistic ass instead of trying to pretend you're not being ethnocentric.
I'd like to point out that Phobos II was a joint Russian ESA project. The Russians really just provided propulsion systems - all the experiments were European.
Last time I checked, we've still sent waaaay more robotic explorers out there than ESA. If this becomes a competition, we can sit back on our asses for the next decade and still have more sent more probes to other planets - especially mars - then the Europeans have. And don't forget, the Europeans have lost their fair share of mars probes. You might want to be a little less eager with your anti-American delight - you're so obvious it reeks.
There are a lot of really bad movies out there, but I'm adept at not going to really bad movies. I can only say that I was on a group outing with my buddy, who had the hots for some girl who was part of this Christian bible study group, so we all had no choice but to see Daddy Day Care - it was the only g-rated thing out there. This is why I don't hang out with other christians whenever I can help it.
What I can tell you about are the really good movies that just weren't great. Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions were good movies in and of themselves, but they failed to live up to the Matrix itself. The Wachowski brothers set to many precedents for style, action, story-line, and plot resolution in the first Matrix movie, that it was naturally expected that there'd be even more impressive camera tricks, FX, and martial arts moves. In the end, it came across as "Matrix::Rehashed". However, I'm convinced that for people who had never seen the Matrix, if they watched all three films back to back they'd love the whole series, because Reloaded and Revolutions are merely extensions of the first, not sequels in the sense we as Americans have come to expect.
The LotR series, by contrast, has not been a disappointment at all. Aside from the fact that it is an ass-numbing movie experience (3 hour movies, yikes), the LotR was a known quantity for Tolkein fans and neophytes alike. We knew the story line because the film outlines it in the beginning. That leaves the viewer to sit back and simple watch passively as events unfold. Therein, they are treated to simply incredible special effects, superb acting by all involved (especially Andy/Gollum), and a story line which allows good to triumph over evil (which is what everyone wants).
One movie I think was overlooked was Pirates of the Carribean. Johnny Depp (liberal anti-American punk though he is) did a wonderful job for Captain Jack Sparrow (departing fully from the cagy timid character roles of Ichibod Crane or Edward Scissorhands). The storyline had few holes in it, but was an otherwise rousing adventure that kept one on the edge of their seat.
Let's not forget Kill Bill,which was overhyped to hell, but had value as an icon of pop culture expression. I enjoyed some of the twists and turns of the movie, but overall it sucked.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines turned into the big "blah". I mean, the action was great, the acting was good, the FX was REALLY good, but we lacked the development of the SheTerminator. I would have liked more full frontal nudity on that one to be sure, but I digress: the lack of continuity of characters (except for the T1000 model) made this movie feel like a disconnected franchise piece. I hope to see more Terminator movies, simply because I find the story line compelling (it's the same premise as Matrix and Battlestar Galactica).
Battlestar Galactica: I thoroughly expected Sci Fi to fuck this up, but they've done something worse. They made a really good movie with action, special effects, complex characters, rich story lines, but then nixed the resolution and settled for denoumont. I mean, we're stuck at what should otherwise be the turning point of the story - where the humans get away and regroup. Okay, okay, we all know that this was a segway to a television series, but that's not assured. This could have gotten better treatment, but I'm still quite happy with what I did get, and if it turns into a series with this level of quality, I may ease up on my damnation of Sci Fi as the scourge of the Genre (but not until they bring back Farscape, Invisible Man, and buy up Firefly and put that back into production).
There was more than sci-fi/fantasy on the movie reels this year, so without further adeiu
Finding Nemo: Cute, funny, inventive, and without the patently typical Disney movie aftertaste we're so used to.
Hulk: Good movie, but not great. Erik Banna was too much the wimp in this movie. I liked him better when he was the Somali-hacking Delta operator in Blackhawk Down. Director Ang Lee de
I can take a 3.1 MP photograph with a Kodak DCS 560 that will look a thousand times clearer, crisper, and livelier than a 3.1 MP photograph from a $150 point and shoot (like the Fuji Finepix A330). The difference? Those 3.1 MP need to be quicky and accurately processed in memory into a proper TIFF or JPG image that will hold all of the original image data. Additionally, the CCD imager geometry makes a difference (Fuji's high end cameras like the S3 Pro use octagonal imager elements, most people use very closely spaced rectangular or square imager elements). There are other things, such as color depth, saturation, luminosity, alpha, and so on. Even todays 20 MP cameras still can't beat plain old emulsion based films. Purists will still use film, especially in art, and scientists will still use film for it's adaptability (making a new kind of film is faster and cheapter than making a new type of imager). The high-res digitals will largely remain the domain of media photographers, small photo studios, and the hobbyist who has $2,000 to $40,000 to blow.
I wasn't e huge fan of the original BG, but I did appreciate it's campy attitude and quality special effects. I fully expected Sciffy - who habitually fucks up anything good with Sci Fi - the screw the pooch on BG. In the end, I was left begging for more, and I'll be doubly pissed if Sci Fi doesn't evolve this into a series. The ending was a real hanger, and this after they had gone through so much trouble to develop rich characters in such a short amount of time, and make it all believable.
For the posters information, however, FTL does not violate the laws of physics. It's just impossible (or, more correctly, improbable) to do.
What the hell is michael smoking today that he'd actually post this, then actually allow a comparison. To wit, the Taero is a non-existent vaporware ford-focus with a surfboard wing wannabe. The Moller Sky Car actually flies, exists, and has existed for years.
The Taero is a pipe dream at least - deceitful vaporware at best, and most likely a venture capital scam in progress. There is no reason this story should be on slashdot - except for the probably lameness of slashdot. The Jihad is right.
It wasn't a bluff. It w as a serious research effort with lofty goals which were never achieved because their necessity disappated. Calling SDI a bluff is about as honest as calling the moon race a bluff.
And FYI, I have an acquaintance who worked on an SDI programme in the 80's which resulted in - here it comes - the Patriot II Anti Missile System.
Newsflash genius, both SDI and the NAP resulted in technologies which now make life cheaper for consumers. You can thank SDI for improved CD-ROM drives, for one thing.
Seeing as how number portability *just* happenned, why is this article here? I mean, not everyone is looking to dump their carriers now just because they can.
They never actually say what planet she visits, or if she even visits any planet at all. The signal appeared to originate from Vega, but as she rode in the pod, she appeared to have stopped and then restarted again a few times.
THIS LOOKS LIKE ASS
on
Project Plex-Box
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Lissen up folks, just because someone does a really good job cutting plexi and mounting stuff to it doesn't make it a good case mod. It's a box. My dead granny can make something more imaginitve than this.
It's now rated funny. It's not that funny, but I meant it to be a little funny. More of an ironic statment on the lackluster technological assemblage of a spacestation built by the lowest bidder, and running on Windows NT. Yeah. that's what I want floating in a tin can 60 miles above earth: to hear a crunching noise, followed by all screens displaying the infamouse BSOD.
Slashdot Mirror
I imagine this to be on snopes by weeks end. An associate of mine liked to tell stories about his well meaning but not-so-bright grandmother. Particularly the time he was twelve and she bought him a puppy. She lives in New Hampshire - he in North Carolina, so she figures she'd ship it. And she did - in a sealed box. Well the puppy died, but that wasn't enough. It was loaded into the unpressurized cabin of a cargo plane and flown down by an unnamed three letter shipping company with brown trucks. Apparently the depressurization caused the necroticizing lung tissues to rupture, and the uncoagulated blood leaked out it's nose and got all over the stuffing. Luckily, the boys parents noticed a "smell" on receiving the package, and saved him from what would arguably be one of the most fucked up christmases ever. For the happy ending (for everyone but the puppy), the parents got him a puppy two days later, and neither he nor the grandmother knew. He didn't find out until he was 17.
I'm going to connect a few dots here. Persian Gulf. Bought laptops, cellphones for scammers. $320,000 (buys a lot of kalishnakov rifles). Has anyone yet considered that the 419 Scams have evolved from a simple scam, to an urban legend, to a joke, to a sad commentary on the gullability of westerners, and finally, to a viable revenue stream for terrorist organizations?
Given the abject poverty of the third world, they are hardly the cause of all pollution. We in the 'civilized world' pump out way more than our fair share of pollutants. The difference is that we pump out less harmful pollutants. However, it's a little disingenuous to blame the third worlds mass breeding habits for it. The fault is actually the industrialized second world - China and India.
Maybe now all you fools who were so gleefully chanting that Europe was leading the space race (with a single probe, forgetting Phobos, and forgetting the half-dozen US probes that have actually hit the dirt and sent radio signals back) will have a little perspective now. The space race isn't about whose nation gets there first, or who is in the lead, because it's all about humanity. And guess what - failure is not an option, but it is an eventuality.
It's actually a 2002 book, but I believe it's first US printing is 2003, so here goes: "It Must Be Beautiful, Great Equations of Modern Science". Edited by Graham Farmelo, this book is a collection of essays by 11 of todays best and brightest. The readings aren't dry at all, and science/mathematics buffs will be struck by how palatable this book is. For me, it drove home one thing I always knew to be factual, but never considered in philisophical terms, that formulae aren't just tools for calculations, they're expressions of ideas. That point is well made in chapter one when Einstein is compared to Planck, especially in that they both came up with the same E=hf formula, but applied to nearly unrelated areas of physics (cavity radiation vs quantum radiation). Then the point is further illustrated in talking about the Drake equation, a formula well blasted for its uselessness, but highly lauded for it's ability to provoke deep scientific discussion on topics from astrophysics to cosmology to sociology and philosophy.
I'm about half way through this book right now, and I find myself going back to dwell on previous chapters I've already read. While I don't exactly have a hard-on for this book, it is interesting enough that I'd recommend it to anyone with a menial mathematics and physics background who is interested in a new insight into the mundane triviality of text-book errata.
Like, isn't KDE better in many respects? Most. Wait. Gnome sucks. Hey, I've got a great idea, why not make as many desktops as available as possible, and just select one default installed desktop.
If we as Americans want to be morons and outsource software jobs to foreign countries, that's fine. If we can get it done cheaper, then that is the American way. Maybe if we are to be so concerned about it, we would take the step of only buying American made products - including software. But then, and pardon me for lacking my usually jingoistic patriotism here - I don't give a fuck who writes the code behind the software I use, so long as it works for my purposes. If it weren't for foreign programmers, I would'nt be free from microsoft, able to watch DVD's on Linux, or program more efficiently (QT vs .Net, MFC, etc).
I wonder...how many "outsourced" programmers are bitching about their plight while driving their Honda/Kia/Toyota/Nissan/Hyundia/Suzuki/Isuzu/etc. Sure the American automakers might have sympathy - not.
I haven't seen anyone bash the british in this thread. Perhaps you could stop wasting everyones time by AT LEAST trolling the CORRECT thread?
Okay, you're an idiot.
The quantity or quality of the space probes put up by any nation is irrelevent. Exploration of space should be a collective (oh how I hate that word) effort by mankind. But, posters such as you and the root post insist on making it a "us vs the Americans" issue.
As for my post being flamebait, well, you can take it for what it is, but if you insist on calling it bait then you should also cede that you took the bait hook, line, and sinker.
And who the hell is bashing the british?
It's insightful because I put back into perspective the notion that there is inherent risk in exploration no matter who is sending up the probes. This is in stark contrast to the original poster who posited that the Americans have (and I fucking quote) "actually lost the edge" to the Europeans because of one damn little mars probe. So, you can take your viking (aka Nordic Pirates) heritage and blow it out of your nationalistic ass instead of trying to pretend you're not being ethnocentric.
I'd like to point out that Phobos II was a joint Russian ESA project. The Russians really just provided propulsion systems - all the experiments were European.
Slander...libel...you've definately been harmed economically, and there may be issues of racketeering involved.
Last time I checked, we've still sent waaaay more robotic explorers out there than ESA. If this becomes a competition, we can sit back on our asses for the next decade and still have more sent more probes to other planets - especially mars - then the Europeans have. And don't forget, the Europeans have lost their fair share of mars probes. You might want to be a little less eager with your anti-American delight - you're so obvious it reeks.
There are a lot of really bad movies out there, but I'm adept at not going to really bad movies. I can only say that I was on a group outing with my buddy, who had the hots for some girl who was part of this Christian bible study group, so we all had no choice but to see Daddy Day Care - it was the only g-rated thing out there. This is why I don't hang out with other christians whenever I can help it.
What I can tell you about are the really good movies that just weren't great. Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions were good movies in and of themselves, but they failed to live up to the Matrix itself. The Wachowski brothers set to many precedents for style, action, story-line, and plot resolution in the first Matrix movie, that it was naturally expected that there'd be even more impressive camera tricks, FX, and martial arts moves. In the end, it came across as "Matrix::Rehashed". However, I'm convinced that for people who had never seen the Matrix, if they watched all three films back to back they'd love the whole series, because Reloaded and Revolutions are merely extensions of the first, not sequels in the sense we as Americans have come to expect.
The LotR series, by contrast, has not been a disappointment at all. Aside from the fact that it is an ass-numbing movie experience (3 hour movies, yikes), the LotR was a known quantity for Tolkein fans and neophytes alike. We knew the story line because the film outlines it in the beginning. That leaves the viewer to sit back and simple watch passively as events unfold. Therein, they are treated to simply incredible special effects, superb acting by all involved (especially Andy/Gollum), and a story line which allows good to triumph over evil (which is what everyone wants).
One movie I think was overlooked was Pirates of the Carribean. Johnny Depp (liberal anti-American punk though he is) did a wonderful job for Captain Jack Sparrow (departing fully from the cagy timid character roles of Ichibod Crane or Edward Scissorhands). The storyline had few holes in it, but was an otherwise rousing adventure that kept one on the edge of their seat.
Let's not forget Kill Bill,which was overhyped to hell, but had value as an icon of pop culture expression. I enjoyed some of the twists and turns of the movie, but overall it sucked.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines turned into the big "blah". I mean, the action was great, the acting was good, the FX was REALLY good, but we lacked the development of the SheTerminator. I would have liked more full frontal nudity on that one to be sure, but I digress: the lack of continuity of characters (except for the T1000 model) made this movie feel like a disconnected franchise piece. I hope to see more Terminator movies, simply because I find the story line compelling (it's the same premise as Matrix and Battlestar Galactica).
Battlestar Galactica: I thoroughly expected Sci Fi to fuck this up, but they've done something worse. They made a really good movie with action, special effects, complex characters, rich story lines, but then nixed the resolution and settled for denoumont. I mean, we're stuck at what should otherwise be the turning point of the story - where the humans get away and regroup. Okay, okay, we all know that this was a segway to a television series, but that's not assured. This could have gotten better treatment, but I'm still quite happy with what I did get, and if it turns into a series with this level of quality, I may ease up on my damnation of Sci Fi as the scourge of the Genre (but not until they bring back Farscape, Invisible Man, and buy up Firefly and put that back into production).
There was more than sci-fi/fantasy on the movie reels this year, so without further adeiu
Finding Nemo: Cute, funny, inventive, and without the patently typical Disney movie aftertaste we're so used to.
Hulk: Good movie, but not great. Erik Banna was too much the wimp in this movie. I liked him better when he was the Somali-hacking Delta operator in Blackhawk Down. Director Ang Lee de
And slashdot expects me to subscribe to this kind of hackery?
I can take a 3.1 MP photograph with a Kodak DCS 560 that will look a thousand times clearer, crisper, and livelier than a 3.1 MP photograph from a $150 point and shoot (like the Fuji Finepix A330). The difference? Those 3.1 MP need to be quicky and accurately processed in memory into a proper TIFF or JPG image that will hold all of the original image data. Additionally, the CCD imager geometry makes a difference (Fuji's high end cameras like the S3 Pro use octagonal imager elements, most people use very closely spaced rectangular or square imager elements). There are other things, such as color depth, saturation, luminosity, alpha, and so on. Even todays 20 MP cameras still can't beat plain old emulsion based films. Purists will still use film, especially in art, and scientists will still use film for it's adaptability (making a new kind of film is faster and cheapter than making a new type of imager). The high-res digitals will largely remain the domain of media photographers, small photo studios, and the hobbyist who has $2,000 to $40,000 to blow.
I wasn't e huge fan of the original BG, but I did appreciate it's campy attitude and quality special effects. I fully expected Sciffy - who habitually fucks up anything good with Sci Fi - the screw the pooch on BG. In the end, I was left begging for more, and I'll be doubly pissed if Sci Fi doesn't evolve this into a series. The ending was a real hanger, and this after they had gone through so much trouble to develop rich characters in such a short amount of time, and make it all believable.
For the posters information, however, FTL does not violate the laws of physics. It's just impossible (or, more correctly, improbable) to do.
What the hell is michael smoking today that he'd actually post this, then actually allow a comparison. To wit, the Taero is a non-existent vaporware ford-focus with a surfboard wing wannabe. The Moller Sky Car actually flies, exists, and has existed for years.
The Taero is a pipe dream at least - deceitful vaporware at best, and most likely a venture capital scam in progress. There is no reason this story should be on slashdot - except for the probably lameness of slashdot. The Jihad is right.
It wasn't a bluff. It w as a serious research effort with lofty goals which were never achieved because their necessity disappated. Calling SDI a bluff is about as honest as calling the moon race a bluff.
And FYI, I have an acquaintance who worked on an SDI programme in the 80's which resulted in - here it comes - the Patriot II Anti Missile System.
Newsflash genius, both SDI and the NAP resulted in technologies which now make life cheaper for consumers. You can thank SDI for improved CD-ROM drives, for one thing.
Fuggin reagan bashing luddites.
...a Beowulf Cluster of pipe organs playing Beowulf.
Seeing as how number portability *just* happenned, why is this article here? I mean, not everyone is looking to dump their carriers now just because they can.
They never actually say what planet she visits, or if she even visits any planet at all. The signal appeared to originate from Vega, but as she rode in the pod, she appeared to have stopped and then restarted again a few times.
Lissen up folks, just because someone does a really good job cutting plexi and mounting stuff to it doesn't make it a good case mod. It's a box. My dead granny can make something more imaginitve than this.
It's now rated funny. It's not that funny, but I meant it to be a little funny. More of an ironic statment on the lackluster technological assemblage of a spacestation built by the lowest bidder, and running on Windows NT. Yeah. that's what I want floating in a tin can 60 miles above earth: to hear a crunching noise, followed by all screens displaying the infamouse BSOD.