I grew up always being praised for being smart, for being gifted, and the like. I was reading at 2, talking and walking really early, and my twin brother was the same. I went to a gifted elementary school and because of that acceleration I breezed through middle and high school and got into a great college.
When I got there, I hit a wall. Many classes where "dumb" people did better than me and I managed a B-C average. Hell, sometimes I didn't care to go to class at all. I waited til the night before to study, and laughed at the kids who spent all week doing organic chemistry problems. I was always "busy" though not really doing anything but playing computer games.
I'm sure many people can relate to this. Still, procrastination and issues related to it constantly plagued me. Anyway, I squeezed by and graduated and got a job and it was great... for a while. Until it started being challenging.
During my last job, I finally figured out what it was, which is what the article says. A combination of an over-protective mom who couldn't let me fail and a slew of teachers who couldn't handle my ability to just devour information created a huge problem with the fear of failure. I had no idea how to deal with failure even as a kid, since I never *had* failed. I'd never been allowed to, that I can remember. If I was doing something wrong or slow, my mom would always cut in and fix it for me with a "you're smart, you can do this faster, let me do it for you". I never got to solve my own problems when I made mistakes. Since college and work can be tough, they finally presented real challenges for me and I didn't have anyone to save me. And of course, the problems there led to massive issues with avoiding potential failures: procrastination, laziness, shirking difficult projects. I've spent a lot of time reading books and in therapy to deal with it.
Finally, after having moved away from my parents and their influence, I started figuring out what *I* want and started breaking out of these habits. I pursued a Masters degree at night while working full time, and it was surprising how I could do both of these things and manage a 3.7 GPA and good salary while as an undergrad I couldn't do either of them. I'm still dealing with them to some extent, but I know I'm on the path to eliminating it completely.
If you can relate to these issues, check out The NOW Habit and books on the "Achilles syndrome" or fear of failure in general. It's possible to reverse the bad influences and teachings of your parents and teachers.
"I guess I wasn't specific enough for possible robot readers like yourself. Even though it's common to see "nm", I understand that accuracy is more important than actual communication for some. So try to parse "n.m." instead. Thank you good bye."
I'm not ashamed to say that I read your "nm" and was confused. I'm no "robot reader" but I'm not used to dealing in nautical mile measurements so I immediately jumped to nanometers.
Then I started thinking, "8500nm to the gallon? Is that good?" "Or is that how thick the wing is? That's amazing!"
It wasn't until I noticed your response to his post that I knew what you were talking about. If you're the guy focusing on "actual communication" you might want to consider that your audience might not always know what you mean when you use jargons and abbreviations.
In other words, illegal immigrants are the new slaves. It's actually a better situation to just pay them because you don't have to take care of them, there's no investment to lose if they die or get sick. You don't even lose work, because you pick up a new one. And they typically work harder and are frequently better trained for the jobs to which we put them than the locals. And this is exactly why I am against illegal immigration. Here in San Diego, this entire underclass of people has developed with day laborers at every Home Depot working for $8 an hour - while union workers doing the same job make $20-40 - and maids that you can hire for $40 to clean your whole giant house.
The fact that you can pay people less than the minimum wage - and far less than the poverty level wage - and get away with it, or rather, that our culture out here is built on it is reprehensible.
Unfortunately, I don't have a good solution for this that are not really drastic - such as importing fruit/agriculture products instead of growing them here.
While the names may have been officially changed in 1999 and many of us having been working on computers for far longer than that, that's just old habits dying hard - the real problem is one of a perception.
Windows (and I assume Mac OS?) continues to display file size in terms of base 2, and HD manufacturers have bought into this base 10 thing (to make their hard drives sound larger).
I don't care either way which one they use, as long as both groups agree on the same thing. This discrepancy between what is on the HD box/computer website and what is shown in the OS confuses a lot of people, and it's a pain to explain to the average Joe consumer why he isn't getting what he thought he'd be getting.
"Just because some do things differently doesn't make it wrong and your method correct."
He is not saying that there is anything wrong with our US system, but that in programs he uses from Americans, that there is no way to [b]change[/b] the variable to his system.. This is a jab at American arrogance.
If every European programmer allowed shifting from the European date format to the US one in their programs, then he's be right.
What is wrong with allowing the date format to be displayed differently, or expecting programmers to put that in for non-US users? Why is that something that many US programmers do not do?
And a copy for those who don't want to follow the link: (Too few character per line with spaces, so I condensed it here.)
02h: Al Gore / Phish Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory Willy Wonka.....Jeff Richards Charlie Bucket.....Amy Poehler Glen.....Al Gore Oompa Loompas.....Chris Kattan, Fred Armisen, Will Forte
Announcer: We now return to "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", starring Gene Wilder and some midgets. [dissolve to Willy Wonka walking an anatomically-correct Charlie Bucket through the factory]
Charlie Bucket: You mean it, Mr. Wonka? You really mean it?
Willy Wonka: I certainly do, Charlie. I'm giving my entire factory to you!
Charlie Bucket: Woooww!!
Willy Wonka: We just have one more stop to make before everything's yours.
Charlie Bucket: Really? Where are we going?
Willy Wonka: Actually.. the thing is.. [ singing comically off-key ] "There's no earthly way of knowing.. which direction we are going! There's no knowing where we are going! Or which way the wind is BLOW-OW-ING!!" Actually, we're just going to the ACcounting Department! [ laughs ] We have a lot of paperwork to get through. [ blows flute, causing office door to open ] [ Willie Wonka and Charlie enter the office, where accountant Glen is checking orders over the phone ]
Glen: We put in an order for what?! 75,000 pounds of.. snozberries? What the hell is a snozberry?
Willy Wonka: Charlie? This is the factory accountant - my borther Glen. Glen Wonka!
Glen: [ on phone ] Listen, I'm gonna have to get back to you. [ hangs up ]
Willy Wonka: Glen? I have someone here I want you to meet. This.. is Charlie.
Glen: William, I told you not to bring tour groups through here.
Charlie Bucket: Say. Is anything here made out of candy?
Glen: No. Not really. But I think I have some Rolaids in my desk. Knock yourself out. Now.. if that's all, I really have to get back to work. William. We have to take care of this Oompa-Loompa situation. They need green cards, William! We're not making tennis shoes here.
Willy Wonka: Glen, Charlie isn't here for the tour. I'm giving him sole ownership of the factory!
Glen: [ outraged ] You're doing what?!
Willy Wonka: I'm giving the whole factory here to Charlie!
Glen: You gave our business to an eight-year old child?! For God's sakes, why?!
Willy Wonka: Because a child's dream.. is like a thousand candy rainbows.
Glen: Oh, yeah, that makes sense! I'll tell that to our stockholders when they storm down here and beat us bloody with our candy canes!
Willy Wonka: Glen! Please!
Glen: No, William! I've had it! I put up with a lot working here! Riding that insane, psychadelic boat to my office everyday! Having to step around piles and piles of Oompa-Loompa dung! But I am through with it!
Willy Wonka: What are you saying, Glen?
Glen: What I'm saying, William, is that, thanks to your wizwarbulous ideas, this factory is.. [ crumples reports ]..hemorrhaging money!! You have a chocolate river running through here! And I'm pretty sure earlier today a fat kid drowned in it. You tell me how that's helping our bottom line!
Willy Wonka: Glen, please, take it easy!
Glen: Wait! I almost forgot! There's that billion dollars you spent on that machine that turns giant candy bars into tiny chocolate bars. Help me wrap my brain around that one.. 'cause I'm missing the big profit opportunity!
Charlie Bucket: Actually, that is a good point.
Glen: You want to know how bad things are?! You want to know?! [ into intercom ] Get the report on Third Quarter Earnings! [ Oompa-L
1) No. "Round-up" is glyphosate, a chemical that inhibits folic acid synthesis in plants. Humans and animals cannot create folic acid (we must eat it) and do not have this pathway. So glyphosate's main form of action does not harm humans.
Typically when sprayed on plans in the drug war, it is combined with a surfactant (a chemical which makes the solution stick to stuff and not just drip away or run off), which is also not harmful.
2) Glyphosate does not harm people or animals, and it is readily biodegradable. It causes no environmental harm.
3) Except for that fact that glyphosate quickly kills ANY and EVERY plant not resistant to it (hence the creation of glyphosate-resistant crops), there are no drawbacks. The desire to use glyphosate on crops in the US is what lead to its widespread engineering into virtually every crop.
4) I don't know how the plant synthesizes folic acid in a glyphosate resistant plant. It might be that the plant uses a slightly different chemical in the synthesis process that is not affected by glyphosate. It might be that somehow glyphosate is prevented from entering the plant. It does not seem to affect the plant's growth or viability.
I hope that answers your questions. I'm surprised that drug lords hadn't thought of this earlier, but I doubt spending money on R&D is a big priority.
From an Economics perspective, this idea makes a lot of sense. The car insurance company is dealing with imperfect information - they don't know exactly how much of a risk you are and how much money you are going to cost them.
Since this risk factor is the largest part of determining how much to charge for insurance (any insurance, including financial ones like options or futures contracts) they want to be able to better assess how much they should actually charge.
The part of this that's a "crime" is that the discounts they offer for not speeding - which is arguably for most drivers a small determinant of accident risk - are too small to be worth the social cost of giving up the right not to be monitored. This will fail in the market because other companies will still be able to offer competetive rates without invading privacy.
If they (and you) had a perfect estimate of the risk of you costing the company money, then you would be able to pay exactly how much you would be expected to pay in damages.
This generally isn't the case today, as many people pay more for the risk of bad drivers.
I hate to tell you, but the minidisc format is very popular outside of the US, especially in Europe. You can get albums on MD like you can on CD and everything.
It just never really caught on here in the states.
Roundup(chemical name glyphosate or N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine, CAS #1071-83-6) is an herbicide. It doesn't kill pests. It inhibits an enzyme in phenylalanine synthesis, thuse killing the plants.
Animals do not synthesize phenylalanine and do not have this enzyme, so it's practically harmless to animals. They obtain phenylalanine from eating plants.
It has an oral LD50 of 5600 mg/kg in the rat. It has dermal LD50 values of greater than 5000 mg/kg for the acid and isopropylamine salt. It degrades in water and by bacteria, and has very few environmental drawbacks.
You misunderstand the fundamental premise of what a Calorie is and why it is a measure of metabolism.
A Calorie is a measure of energy. One Calorie is 1000 calories. A calorie is the amount of energy required to raise one mL of water 1 degree celsius. A donut is a certain number of calories because in the process of breaking down the donut, that much energy will be produced. Calories are "burned off" as heat released as a byproduct of metabolism. So a half hour of exercise (or many hours of sitting on your ass) will use that same amount of energy and release that heat.
The waste products are already factored into the chemical equations of the metabolic breakdown. Your formula should be: calories burned = rate of metabolism * time. Increasing the rate of metabolism (exercise) lowers the amount of time necessary to burn off the same number of calories. This whole "+waste" idea is nonsense.
One counts their calories because eating excess food and taking on excess energy (so to speak) will cause you to gain weight as that energy is stored as fat. If you have enough muscle to satisfy yourself and are the shape you want to be in, the ideal would be to eat exactly as many calories as you use in a day. Many people count calories so that they eat less than they use in a day in the hopes of losing fat, but this is not the best method to do such a thing. That's a whole different post.
The very point of chainmail - even your average real kind - is to transform piercing/slashing damage into like bludgeoning damage. Without a really incredible amount of force, the spear would never pierce chainmail (not counting the pinning to the wall) and minimally cut the skin.
The real fiction, however, is how Frodo manages to remain unharmed. The spear wouldn't pierce the flesh, but you're right in that the force wouldn't be dissipated. It would have probably broken every bone in his chest.
Despite not actually stopping blows, chainmail was still a very good piece of armor. A broken arm is better than a severed one, and with deaths from disease so high in that era, you wanted to prevent all the exposed insides you could. Stopped arrows pretty well, too.
Dire (adjective): 1) warning of disaster 2) exciting horror 3) dismal, oppressive
Dictionary (noun): 1) a reference book containing words usually alphabetically arranged along with information about their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies, meanings, and syntactical and idiomatic uses 2) Something the Slashdot editors need to buy.
However, if the "scorched sky" world is really a matrix (outside of the other matrix) then how do we even know that it's robots/AI controlling it at all?
Anybody, theoretically, could have designed the system where robots rule humanity for energy and then the "fake" robots could have just invented their own thing within it.
packages complete with a small condom-like rubber cover to protect the lens during shipment
I always figured that ejaculate on the lens would only be a problem AFTER shipment and receipt.
Seriously, though, I see major problems with this device with the Slashdot community. What happens to your online relationship when your significant other wants to call you on the videophone? I see many broken hearts in the future.
I went to Europe to visit my family last summer, and I'd say yes.
In Amsterdam, just about every other girl had a Sisley shirt on. I'd never heard of the brand in the US, so I was kinda amazed.
In this little town in Italy (like 5-10,000 people), there were 5 United Colors of Benetton stores. 3 regular stores, one that sold only makeup, and one for lingerie. Every other store in the entire town was a little mom-and-pop operation. In Rome, there's even one right in front from that famous fountain.
We didn't go to any malls or real commercial areas or anything in Italy, but I still saw plenty of United Colors of Benetton stores.
Gah! Of course there are more amino acids that we don't know. An "amino acid" is a broad set of compounds.
However, the importance is in certain amino acids, and the configuration found in almost every life form we know. The fact that nearly every biologically-used amino acid favors one enantiomer over another in biological systems is of great significance.
There are exceptions to every rule, but it's odd to see our freaky trends differ on a space rock.
Slashdot Mirror
I grew up always being praised for being smart, for being gifted, and the like. I was reading at 2, talking and walking really early, and my twin brother was the same. I went to a gifted elementary school and because of that acceleration I breezed through middle and high school and got into a great college.
When I got there, I hit a wall. Many classes where "dumb" people did better than me and I managed a B-C average. Hell, sometimes I didn't care to go to class at all. I waited til the night before to study, and laughed at the kids who spent all week doing organic chemistry problems. I was always "busy" though not really doing anything but playing computer games.
I'm sure many people can relate to this. Still, procrastination and issues related to it constantly plagued me. Anyway, I squeezed by and graduated and got a job and it was great... for a while. Until it started being challenging.
During my last job, I finally figured out what it was, which is what the article says. A combination of an over-protective mom who couldn't let me fail and a slew of teachers who couldn't handle my ability to just devour information created a huge problem with the fear of failure. I had no idea how to deal with failure even as a kid, since I never *had* failed. I'd never been allowed to, that I can remember. If I was doing something wrong or slow, my mom would always cut in and fix it for me with a "you're smart, you can do this faster, let me do it for you". I never got to solve my own problems when I made mistakes. Since college and work can be tough, they finally presented real challenges for me and I didn't have anyone to save me. And of course, the problems there led to massive issues with avoiding potential failures: procrastination, laziness, shirking difficult projects. I've spent a lot of time reading books and in therapy to deal with it.
Finally, after having moved away from my parents and their influence, I started figuring out what *I* want and started breaking out of these habits. I pursued a Masters degree at night while working full time, and it was surprising how I could do both of these things and manage a 3.7 GPA and good salary while as an undergrad I couldn't do either of them. I'm still dealing with them to some extent, but I know I'm on the path to eliminating it completely.
If you can relate to these issues, check out The NOW Habit and books on the "Achilles syndrome" or fear of failure in general. It's possible to reverse the bad influences and teachings of your parents and teachers.
"I guess I wasn't specific enough for possible robot readers like yourself. Even though it's common to see "nm", I understand that accuracy is more important than actual communication for some. So try to parse "n.m." instead. Thank you good bye."
I'm not ashamed to say that I read your "nm" and was confused. I'm no "robot reader" but I'm not used to dealing in nautical mile measurements so I immediately jumped to nanometers.
Then I started thinking, "8500nm to the gallon? Is that good?" "Or is that how thick the wing is? That's amazing!"
It wasn't until I noticed your response to his post that I knew what you were talking about. If you're the guy focusing on "actual communication" you might want to consider that your audience might not always know what you mean when you use jargons and abbreviations.
The fact that you can pay people less than the minimum wage - and far less than the poverty level wage - and get away with it, or rather, that our culture out here is built on it is reprehensible.
Unfortunately, I don't have a good solution for this that are not really drastic - such as importing fruit/agriculture products instead of growing them here.
While the names may have been officially changed in 1999 and many of us having been working on computers for far longer than that, that's just old habits dying hard - the real problem is one of a perception.
Windows (and I assume Mac OS?) continues to display file size in terms of base 2, and HD manufacturers have bought into this base 10 thing (to make their hard drives sound larger).
I don't care either way which one they use, as long as both groups agree on the same thing. This discrepancy between what is on the HD box/computer website and what is shown in the OS confuses a lot of people, and it's a pain to explain to the average Joe consumer why he isn't getting what he thought he'd be getting.
"Just because some do things differently doesn't make it wrong and your method correct."
He is not saying that there is anything wrong with our US system, but that in programs he uses from Americans, that there is no way to [b]change[/b] the variable to his system.. This is a jab at American arrogance.
If every European programmer allowed shifting from the European date format to the US one in their programs, then he's be right.
What is wrong with allowing the date format to be displayed differently, or expecting programmers to put that in for non-US users? Why is that something that many US programmers do not do?
Now I finally can complain to my cable company that I don't have smell-o-vision!
BAM!
Now if I could only figure out these knobs...
No commercials in the OnDemand version.
There was a hilarious SNL sketch (with Al Gore) a while back where they made fun of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
..hemorrhaging money!! You have a chocolate river running through here! And I'm pretty sure earlier today a fat kid drowned in it. You tell me how that's helping our bottom line!
Here's the link to the transcript:
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/02/02hwonka.phtml/
Anyone have the video?
And a copy for those who don't want to follow the link: (Too few character per line with spaces, so I condensed it here.)
02h: Al Gore / Phish
Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
Willy Wonka.....Jeff Richards
Charlie Bucket.....Amy Poehler
Glen.....Al Gore
Oompa Loompas.....Chris Kattan, Fred Armisen, Will Forte
Announcer: We now return to "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", starring Gene Wilder and some midgets.
[dissolve to Willy Wonka walking an anatomically-correct Charlie Bucket through the factory]
Charlie Bucket: You mean it, Mr. Wonka? You really mean it?
Willy Wonka: I certainly do, Charlie. I'm giving my entire factory to you!
Charlie Bucket: Woooww!!
Willy Wonka: We just have one more stop to make before everything's yours.
Charlie Bucket: Really? Where are we going?
Willy Wonka: Actually.. the thing is.. [ singing comically off-key ] "There's no earthly way of knowing.. which direction we are going! There's no knowing where we are going! Or which way the wind is BLOW-OW-ING!!" Actually, we're just going to the ACcounting Department! [ laughs ] We have a lot of paperwork to get through. [ blows flute, causing office door to open ]
[ Willie Wonka and Charlie enter the office, where accountant Glen is checking orders over the phone ]
Glen: We put in an order for what?! 75,000 pounds of.. snozberries? What the hell is a snozberry?
Willy Wonka: Charlie? This is the factory accountant - my borther Glen. Glen Wonka!
Glen: [ on phone ] Listen, I'm gonna have to get back to you. [ hangs up ]
Willy Wonka: Glen? I have someone here I want you to meet. This.. is Charlie.
Glen: William, I told you not to bring tour groups through here.
Charlie Bucket: Say. Is anything here made out of candy?
Glen: No. Not really. But I think I have some Rolaids in my desk. Knock yourself out. Now.. if that's all, I really have to get back to work. William. We have to take care of this Oompa-Loompa situation. They need green cards, William! We're not making tennis shoes here.
Willy Wonka: Glen, Charlie isn't here for the tour. I'm giving him sole ownership of the factory!
Glen: [ outraged ] You're doing what?!
Willy Wonka: I'm giving the whole factory here to Charlie!
Glen: You gave our business to an eight-year old child?! For God's sakes, why?!
Willy Wonka: Because a child's dream.. is like a thousand candy rainbows.
Glen: Oh, yeah, that makes sense! I'll tell that to our stockholders when they storm down here and beat us bloody with our candy canes!
Willy Wonka: Glen! Please!
Glen: No, William! I've had it! I put up with a lot working here! Riding that insane, psychadelic boat to my office everyday! Having to step around piles and piles of Oompa-Loompa dung! But I am through with it!
Willy Wonka: What are you saying, Glen?
Glen: What I'm saying, William, is that, thanks to your wizwarbulous ideas, this factory is.. [ crumples reports ]
Willy Wonka: Glen, please, take it easy!
Glen: Wait! I almost forgot! There's that billion dollars you spent on that machine that turns giant candy bars into tiny chocolate bars. Help me wrap my brain around that one.. 'cause I'm missing the big profit opportunity!
Charlie Bucket: Actually, that is a good point.
Glen: You want to know how bad things are?! You want to know?! [ into intercom ] Get the report on Third Quarter Earnings!
[ Oompa-L
I'll provide an answer.
1) No. "Round-up" is glyphosate, a chemical that inhibits folic acid synthesis in plants. Humans and animals cannot create folic acid (we must eat it) and do not have this pathway. So glyphosate's main form of action does not harm humans.
Typically when sprayed on plans in the drug war, it is combined with a surfactant (a chemical which makes the solution stick to stuff and not just drip away or run off), which is also not harmful.
2) Glyphosate does not harm people or animals, and it is readily biodegradable. It causes no environmental harm.
3) Except for that fact that glyphosate quickly kills ANY and EVERY plant not resistant to it (hence the creation of glyphosate-resistant crops), there are no drawbacks. The desire to use glyphosate on crops in the US is what lead to its widespread engineering into virtually every crop.
4) I don't know how the plant synthesizes folic acid in a glyphosate resistant plant. It might be that the plant uses a slightly different chemical in the synthesis process that is not affected by glyphosate. It might be that somehow glyphosate is prevented from entering the plant. It does not seem to affect the plant's growth or viability.
I hope that answers your questions. I'm surprised that drug lords hadn't thought of this earlier, but I doubt spending money on R&D is a big priority.
From an Economics perspective, this idea makes a lot of sense. The car insurance company is dealing with imperfect information - they don't know exactly how much of a risk you are and how much money you are going to cost them.
Since this risk factor is the largest part of determining how much to charge for insurance (any insurance, including financial ones like options or futures contracts) they want to be able to better assess how much they should actually charge.
The part of this that's a "crime" is that the discounts they offer for not speeding - which is arguably for most drivers a small determinant of accident risk - are too small to be worth the social cost of giving up the right not to be monitored. This will fail in the market because other companies will still be able to offer competetive rates without invading privacy.
If they (and you) had a perfect estimate of the risk of you costing the company money, then you would be able to pay exactly how much you would be expected to pay in damages.
This generally isn't the case today, as many people pay more for the risk of bad drivers.
I hate to tell you, but the minidisc format is very popular outside of the US, especially in Europe. You can get albums on MD like you can on CD and everything.
It just never really caught on here in the states.
Roundup(chemical name glyphosate or N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine, CAS #1071-83-6) is an herbicide. It doesn't kill pests. It inhibits an enzyme in phenylalanine synthesis, thuse killing the plants.
Animals do not synthesize phenylalanine and do not have this enzyme, so it's practically harmless to animals. They obtain phenylalanine from eating plants.
It has an oral LD50 of 5600 mg/kg in the rat. It has dermal LD50 values of greater than 5000 mg/kg for the acid and isopropylamine salt. It degrades in water and by bacteria, and has very few environmental drawbacks.
You misunderstand the fundamental premise of what a Calorie is and why it is a measure of metabolism.
A Calorie is a measure of energy. One Calorie is 1000 calories. A calorie is the amount of energy required to raise one mL of water 1 degree celsius. A donut is a certain number of calories because in the process of breaking down the donut, that much energy will be produced. Calories are "burned off" as heat released as a byproduct of metabolism. So a half hour of exercise (or many hours of sitting on your ass) will use that same amount of energy and release that heat.
The waste products are already factored into the chemical equations of the metabolic breakdown. Your formula should be: calories burned = rate of metabolism * time. Increasing the rate of metabolism (exercise) lowers the amount of time necessary to burn off the same number of calories. This whole "+waste" idea is nonsense.
One counts their calories because eating excess food and taking on excess energy (so to speak) will cause you to gain weight as that energy is stored as fat. If you have enough muscle to satisfy yourself and are the shape you want to be in, the ideal would be to eat exactly as many calories as you use in a day. Many people count calories so that they eat less than they use in a day in the hopes of losing fat, but this is not the best method to do such a thing. That's a whole different post.
Yeah, but some people complain about the lack of power, features, and "input/output devices" that come with the smaller version.
The very point of chainmail - even your average real kind - is to transform piercing/slashing damage into like bludgeoning damage. Without a really incredible amount of force, the spear would never pierce chainmail (not counting the pinning to the wall) and minimally cut the skin.
The real fiction, however, is how Frodo manages to remain unharmed. The spear wouldn't pierce the flesh, but you're right in that the force wouldn't be dissipated. It would have probably broken every bone in his chest.
Despite not actually stopping blows, chainmail was still a very good piece of armor. A broken arm is better than a severed one, and with deaths from disease so high in that era, you wanted to prevent all the exposed insides you could. Stopped arrows pretty well, too.
Dour (adjective):
1)Stern, harsh
2)gloomy, unyielding
Dire (adjective):
1) warning of disaster
2) exciting horror
3) dismal, oppressive
Dictionary (noun):
1) a reference book containing words usually alphabetically arranged along with information about their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies, meanings, and syntactical and idiomatic uses
2) Something the Slashdot editors need to buy.
Not meaning to be a troll...
I like that reading into it.
However, if the "scorched sky" world is really a matrix (outside of the other matrix) then how do we even know that it's robots/AI controlling it at all?
Anybody, theoretically, could have designed the system where robots rule humanity for energy and then the "fake" robots could have just invented their own thing within it.
What's this? SCO still makes a product? I thought they got out of that business.
packages complete with a small condom-like rubber cover to protect the lens during shipment
I always figured that ejaculate on the lens would only be a problem AFTER shipment and receipt.
Seriously, though, I see major problems with this device with the Slashdot community. What happens to your online relationship when your significant other wants to call you on the videophone? I see many broken hearts in the future.
I went to Europe to visit my family last summer, and I'd say yes.
In Amsterdam, just about every other girl had a Sisley shirt on. I'd never heard of the brand in the US, so I was kinda amazed.
In this little town in Italy (like 5-10,000 people), there were 5 United Colors of Benetton stores. 3 regular stores, one that sold only makeup, and one for lingerie. Every other store in the entire town was a little mom-and-pop operation. In Rome, there's even one right in front from that famous fountain.
We didn't go to any malls or real commercial areas or anything in Italy, but I still saw plenty of United Colors of Benetton stores.
That's about 59.5 seconds per minute...
Yep, definitely vaporware. I don't forsee them changing a minute from 60 seconds to 59.5 anytime soon either.
Is it really for sale? I'd totally buy it. Depends on where you're located, though.
Gah! Of course there are more amino acids that we don't know. An "amino acid" is a broad set of compounds.
However, the importance is in certain amino acids, and the configuration found in almost every life form we know. The fact that nearly every biologically-used amino acid favors one enantiomer over another in biological systems is of great significance.
There are exceptions to every rule, but it's odd to see our freaky trends differ on a space rock.
Personally, I think I'll pass on this mini-series. I didn't like Dune Messiah or Children of Dune nearly as much as Dune.
They just didn't have the same "spice" as the original.
"Your friendly DSL or cable broadband provider could implement this technique to enforce their single-machine license clause."
Crap! Now I have to worry about my internet conn