Certainly under linux ram used as disk cache is marked "free".
Depends on where you look. The output of "top" (and indeed/proc/meminfo) shows only unused memory as free; the output of "free" has a separate line that shows used and free memory "-/+ buffers/cache".
I totally avoid buying sandisk products since my experiences with sandisk cruzer thumb drives at work. It doesn't tell you anywere on the packaging that it forces you into a totally horrible marketing idea....
When you plug in a Sandisk Cruzer it appears as two drives. The first drive is a small read-only drive (presumably a rom) that is configured to auto-install unnecessary windows drivers and other miscellaneous bloatware every time you plug the usb drive in. You can't disable or hide this drive at all. The best you can do is turn off autorun in windows (which was always a crappy idea anyway). The drivers/utilities are totally redundant in that if you never install them you can still access the user drive as normal.
Its particularly annoying of Sandisk to make a product that: a) just assumes you must be using windows. b) Under widnows, the lower drive letter is the ROM, not the user space. c) Its downright rude that it just auto-installs drivers with no user confirmation or control.
You are a moron:
A: The work fine in every OS I've ever tried them with
Heh. I have one plugged in my car stereo.
B: You are worried about the drive letter enumeration here? are you kidding me?
C: Windows auto installs the drivers. Not SanDisk
D: The U3 feature can easily be turned off so the drive looks like any other cheaper flash drives.
Not only can it be turned off on any given Windows computer, but the uninstall process allows removal of the "hidden" partition from the drive itself (with the option of saving any other data on the drive).
you sir need to RTFM before tou bitch about how bad something is you have no business commenting on.
While I feel it's a bit swarmy to require opt-out from the U3 software, the fact that such an option exists is nice.
The $6K was most likely charged back to the merchants, leaving them with the loss. They will, in turn, have to raise prices.
The consumer gets screwed directly when someone else is allowed to get a credit card in their name.
If the merchants didn't eat the chargebacks, the banks would, which would require them to raise interest rates and/or fees, screwing the consumer in the end.
I wanted to read the actual court opinion so I logged into PACER, the official web site of the US federal courts. I was unable to find any opinion (or even any docketed case) for a Paul Little or Max Hardcore dealing with obscenity in ANY federal appeals court.
Does anyone have the docket number or a copy of the opinion?
For a debt, I don't think such a law exists. From http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.shtml#q1:...the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."
The page goes on to further explain that private businesses can refuse certain denominations as an exchange for services, but that would not seem to pertain in this situation.
Science is necessary for medical treatments meaning saving and improving lives. Animals are not more important than humans and if X animals have to die so that countless human lives can be saved / horrible medical conditions can be treated so that their quality of life is better, then yes, it's a worthwhile trade off.
Your argument would have a point if we were talking about human testing against people's will (as was done during the Holocaust). However, since we're talking about animal testing, the ethics part doesn't fit in.
ethics –plural noun 1. (used with a singular or plural verb) a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture. 2. the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical ethics; Christian ethics. 3. moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence. 4. (usually used with a singular verb) that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.
Your moral principals allow you to see yourself apart from and above other animals. While you are not unique in this view, it does not make you right.
Even if one was to concede that humans are indeed superior to other animals, the argument could be made stating that very superiority gives us a moral obligation to not abuse the other animals for humanity's gain.
This topic has ethical implications all over it. For what it's worth, I am not intending to convey a particular side in this discussion. My only intention is to give light to the fact that a discussion is possible.
Under Amazon's recommendation of this item as a great gift idea, I bought one for my new golden lab. He wasn't very thrilled with it. After gnawing on it a little (no too much damage), it just sat in the corner of his doghouse collecting shedded hair and drool.
Posted today...
3 of 8 people found the following review helpful: 2.0 out of 5 stars Not so great of a gift, January 5, 2010
Then get to flying. Imagine and old, rich, white, male. Way over represented on aircraft. What are his odds of dying in a terrorist plane attack?
Now look at the senate, or the house, or the upper management at CNN. Maybe you'll see why we get so much attention paid to plane attacks.
How many of those in the Senate, or in a senior management position with CNN fly using commercial air lines? What percentage of people exerting significant influence on Senators, or CNN's senior management do? How would your demographic argument hold up if this statistic was known and accounted for?
In a RATIONAL world, **one** terrorism flag (i.e. one-way ticket, buying with cash, no luggage, watch list, etc) would yield pulling the passenger aside and "enhanced investigation": two flags, and the person is getting a very thorough body and luggage search, and three or more flags, it's grab the latex gloves, because it's a strip-search and fine-tooth comb search through luggage and posessions.
So if I decide to buy a car 600 miles away, buy a one-way plane ticket with cash and only carry a small bag (or just a book/magazine to read on the plane), you think I should be physically violated (one-way ticket, paid cash, no luggage)?
DRM doesn't make any sense on books. No one even has to "crack" it -- it only takes one person with access to type the book into an open format and distribute it.
Type the books? Why would you do that? Just scan them.
The publishers can either suck it up and realize this, or lose out to the pirates who provide a better, more convenient product for zero cost.
Geostationary orbit (where communications satellites are generally parked) is 35,786 km. Run the calculation with accurate numbers: 500 to 900 ms round trip. Or just search for "geosynchronous orbit latency in ms". Like so.
The result is that it's slow/unusable for many types of applications, which can't handle a 1 second round-trip delay.
By many applications, you mean some games. Video Teleconferencing works just fine. Many free offerings (such as Skype) work less-fine, but do still work.
In other words, it's not "broadband".
That depends entirely on the definition of "broadband". If you narrowly define it to include lower than 100ms latency (which I have never seen a definition do), it can't be. But if you just specify bandwidth...
You won't be comfortable trying to use VoIP over satellite, and streaming media won't work at all without a stout amount of pre-buffering.
Streaming media only needs bandwidth. VOIP only needs reasonably low jitter. Both are achievable over satellite. YouTube, internet radio, gametrailers.com all work quite well. I even know a number of WOW players who are on the far end of a satellite connection.
While it's far from ideal, it certainly beats dial-up, which may very well also have to pass data through a satellite transponder. There are areas of the country that are not even serviced by copper.
Whether or not you believe he is making it a better country isn't the issue, either... -He- believes that (and so do many others) and he's working on his beliefs.
That's an admirable thing.
So you're saying he's kinda like Jack Thompson?
Except for the part where he's (NYCL) not unprofessional enough to get disbarred, there are certainly similarities. Passion, theatrics, showmanship... I'd have to tip the scales on talent and intelligence in NYCL's favor, though.
In the US (well, the parts I've paid attention to) "real property" is the land and anything attached to it. If you can lift it and carry it out (with or without help) with nothing more than disconnecting it from utilities (or something like a dryer vent) then it not part of the real property.
SNIP
It's rude and a violation of contract to remove anything "secured" to the grounds, and you have to unscrew [the light bulbs] to take them, so they are part of the real property.
So how exactly does your clothes washer connect to the plumbing?
I don't think that the bulbs in the fixtures (as opposed to the existence of some bulbs in the fixtures) is likely to be a point of contention with the law (unless the contract governing transference of ownership says otherwise. YMMV, IANAL, etc.
Looks like he went Tampa to London via Houston (used to be Intercontinental) and then mysteriously flew from Charles DeGaulle in Paris back to Tampa via Newark. (Hmmmmmm.. what of the missing segment? Hmm? Hmm?!!!)
They have these crazy things in Europe called "trains" that connect city centres without having to hang around in an unfashionable suburb for a few hours waiting to be put into a metal tube. You don't even have to take your shoes off to get on them.
Silly Europeans always have such a skewed sense of geography. Newark to Tampa is 1,000 miles, exactly. It's a two and a half hour flight and a 20 hour train ride.
Newark to Tampa was a plane ride. London to Paris was the "missing segment" and is a very manageable 214 miles with a 1st class ticket price available from 99GBP.
Yeah, some good advice. I'm married, and while my wife isn't geeky, the same "rules" apply in all marriages, IMO:
Always communicate.
Never go to bed angry.
Learn to say, "Yes, dear."
Learn to accept the things you don't have in common, rather than just focusing on the things you do have in common.
Remember to always listen, as this is mostly all that is often needed.
Best of luck for your future together! I don't regret getting married for a second.
PS. Also, let her win at things, no matter how good you are. Trust me on this one. Oh, and when you ask her if she's okay and she says, "Nothing's wrong.", give her a hug, because something is definitely wrong!
Add to this:
try to see the other persons side from their point of view even if you don't agree with it - it will lead to better understanding of your partners thought process.
Listen to what they are saying without judgment, without trying to second guess or control them or their thoughts.
Remain calm no matter what - lose your temper and you lose control of your self and your side of the discussion/argument.
Again, remember to listen without interruption - actually hear what your partner is saying without judgement.
Sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war. Even if you know you are right. Later the truth of the matter will often reveal itself.
It's worked for me and my wife for almost 30 years now. Good luck!
Further additions...
Despite what you may hear or wish, marriage is not always a 50/50 split. If it bothers you, do something about it.*
Always communicate. Seriously, this is worth repeating.
Remember that women forgive but never forget. Men forget, but never forgive.
Most importantly, nobody has the same experience in a marriage. You've got to explore it for yourself and make it work in your own way.
What happens when you get married: 1. Sex stops 2. She get's fat (probably you too) 3. All your money starts disappearing for no apparent reason. 4. You will be surrounded by strange and insufferable relatives from some place you have never heard of. 5. You will get to drive the old car. 6. Gaming did you say? That won't last long. "I can't believe you are going to play on the computer AGAIN. You just played last week!" 7. She will start asking you if she looks fat, despite the fact she is perfectly aware of #2 8. She won't cook (See #1) and she won't be able to make a decent dinner. 9. You will have to leave the house when her literary friends come over to discuss the life analogies in some gay French author's book. 10. LAN parties? No Fucking Way in her house!
If this is a serious post, based on personal experience, you married the wrong woman.
I keep thinking how these approaches would work when applied to books.
Imagine buying a great book, a classic even, that you'd like to have a copy of to reread over the years and maybe introduce your kids to later on.
Now imagine the ink disappearing or turning to gibberish after an allowable reading period (5 years? 1 year? 1 month?). I wonder what your average reader's reaction would be if they pulled their copy of their favourite novel off their bookshelf, opened it, and found it to be completely empty (actually, it would be amusing if the pages could just disintegrate in a puff of smoke!)
Like this? At least the people affected by this got their money back...
Not at "a slight payload hit". To get the ET up to a reasonable altitude where it won't deorbit shortly would take pretty much the entire OMS fuel budget.
According to the link provided by the parent of the post you replied to, the ET is jettisoned at >97% of orbital velocity. Perhaps I am mistaken (it certainly wouldn't be the first time) but that indicates to me a (relatively) small additional fuel requirement to bring the ET fully to orbital velocity.
There have been some interesting proposals to use the ETs as the backbone of a station, but they've never made it past review.
I don't understand the thinking behind several parts of your last paragraph - but I am deeply interested in why you think they are so:
I'm not the parent poster, and not religious by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll have a go at giving rational* answers to the questions asked.
- If god is omnipotent / all powerful etc - why do you need to tell others about him? Can he not do this himself if he felt it was the thing to do?
How do you know that He is not? Perhaps he really is speaking through vessels. Due to the existence of free will, others choose to mimic his "chosen" and subvert his message for their own gain. It is your responsibility "to separate the wheat from the chaff", after all.
- If god is generous rewarding etc. - why is there evil in the world>=? Why does he allow situations to occur that turn good people into bad people? (trauma, post-traumatic stress etc.)
Because there is no "good" without "evil". People are given outside influence and are allowed to make choices based on that influence (free will). Lead a "good" life and honor God, you receive eternal reward. If you fall to temptation you suffer the consequence (as it was with Adam and Eve).
- Why heaven - why not just make the real world nice.
It was. Garden of Eden, and all that.
- Why do you believe you know the mind of god? (sorry if I read that wrong - but from your post you seem convinced you do). You may believe that god cannot be mistaken - but do you believe that you cannot be mistaken for thinking you know his mind?
This I can not begin to answer. I certainly don't know the mind of God. I can't know the mind of God. I can't even truly know my own mind.
I am deeply interested in hearing what you have to say on this.
Hopefully my answers were not boring...:o)
*Given the context of an unverifiable story, how rational can any answer based on it be?
Explain? It certainly describes the four fources, very accurately. And no faith is needed, because the four forces exist.
It cannot explain time.
Again, what do you mean by "explain"? It certainly describes time, and its interrelation with space, in ways that religion never even guessed at. And no faith is needed, because time exists.
All of those are taken as given without explanation or identifiable cause.
What, are you asserting that the Universe, the four forces, and time don't exist?
Prove that they do without placing faith in your powers of observation.:o)
Call it what you will, I can see the argument that you have to have "faith" that your observations are correct, and verifiable in order to test hypotheses and promote them to scientific theories. From that argument (and not withstanding the rantings of the parent post) it follows that, at the root, science is based on faith.
Slashdot Mirror
It would cost less money than the current situation for everyone but the banks.
I would be interested in seeing a study supporting that hypothesis.
Certainly under linux ram used as disk cache is marked "free".
Depends on where you look. The output of "top" (and indeed /proc/meminfo) shows only unused memory as free; the output of "free" has a separate line that shows used and free memory "-/+ buffers/cache".
Which would cost money, which would raise interest rates and/or fees...
The customer bears the burden any way you look at it.
I totally avoid buying sandisk products since my experiences with sandisk cruzer thumb drives at work.
It doesn't tell you anywere on the packaging that it forces you into a totally horrible marketing idea....
When you plug in a Sandisk Cruzer it appears as two drives. The first drive is a small read-only drive (presumably a rom) that is configured to auto-install unnecessary windows drivers and other miscellaneous bloatware every time you plug the usb drive in. You can't disable or hide this drive at all. The best you can do is turn off autorun in windows (which was always a crappy idea anyway). The drivers/utilities are totally redundant in that if you never install them you can still access the user drive as normal.
Its particularly annoying of Sandisk to make a product that:
a) just assumes you must be using windows.
b) Under widnows, the lower drive letter is the ROM, not the user space.
c) Its downright rude that it just auto-installs drivers with no user confirmation or control.
You are a moron:
A: The work fine in every OS I've ever tried them with
Heh. I have one plugged in my car stereo.
B: You are worried about the drive letter enumeration here? are you kidding me?
C: Windows auto installs the drivers. Not SanDisk
D: The U3 feature can easily be turned off so the drive looks like any other cheaper flash drives.
Not only can it be turned off on any given Windows computer, but the uninstall process allows removal of the "hidden" partition from the drive itself (with the option of saving any other data on the drive).
you sir need to RTFM before tou bitch about how bad something is you have no business commenting on.
While I feel it's a bit swarmy to require opt-out from the U3 software, the fact that such an option exists is nice.
Citibank, Bank of America, Discover and Paypal all offer disposable card numbers. American Express used to, but apparently stopped around 2004.
The $6K was most likely charged back to the merchants, leaving them with the loss. They will, in turn, have to raise prices.
The consumer gets screwed directly when someone else is allowed to get a credit card in their name.
If the merchants didn't eat the chargebacks, the banks would, which would require them to raise interest rates and/or fees, screwing the consumer in the end.
I wanted to read the actual court opinion so I logged into PACER, the official web site of the US federal courts. I was unable to find any opinion (or even any docketed case) for a Paul Little or Max Hardcore dealing with obscenity in ANY federal appeals court.
Does anyone have the docket number or a copy of the opinion?
http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/unpub/ops/200815964.pdf
For a debt, I don't think such a law exists. From http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.shtml#q1: ...the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."
The page goes on to further explain that private businesses can refuse certain denominations as an exchange for services, but that would not seem to pertain in this situation.
Science is necessary for medical treatments meaning saving and improving lives. Animals are not more important than humans and if X animals have to die so that countless human lives can be saved / horrible medical conditions can be treated so that their quality of life is better, then yes, it's a worthwhile trade off.
Your argument would have a point if we were talking about human testing against people's will (as was done during the Holocaust). However, since we're talking about animal testing, the ethics part doesn't fit in.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ethics
ethics
–plural noun
1. (used with a singular or plural verb) a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture.
2. the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical ethics; Christian ethics.
3. moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.
4. (usually used with a singular verb) that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.
Your moral principals allow you to see yourself apart from and above other animals. While you are not unique in this view, it does not make you right.
Even if one was to concede that humans are indeed superior to other animals, the argument could be made stating that very superiority gives us a moral obligation to not abuse the other animals for humanity's gain.
This topic has ethical implications all over it. For what it's worth, I am not intending to convey a particular side in this discussion. My only intention is to give light to the fact that a discussion is possible.
Did you see the customer review?
Under Amazon's recommendation of this item as a great gift idea, I bought one for my new golden lab. He wasn't very thrilled with it. After gnawing on it a little (no too much damage), it just sat in the corner of his doghouse collecting shedded hair and drool.
Posted today...
3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Not so great of a gift, January 5, 2010
Then get to flying. Imagine and old, rich, white, male. Way over represented on aircraft. What are his odds of dying in a terrorist plane attack?
Now look at the senate, or the house, or the upper management at CNN. Maybe you'll see why we get so much attention paid to plane attacks.
How many of those in the Senate, or in a senior management position with CNN fly using commercial air lines? What percentage of people exerting significant influence on Senators, or CNN's senior management do? How would your demographic argument hold up if this statistic was known and accounted for?
In a RATIONAL world, **one** terrorism flag (i.e. one-way ticket, buying with cash, no luggage, watch list, etc) would yield pulling the passenger aside and "enhanced investigation": two flags, and the person is getting a very thorough body and luggage search, and three or more flags, it's grab the latex gloves, because it's a strip-search and fine-tooth comb search through luggage and posessions.
So if I decide to buy a car 600 miles away, buy a one-way plane ticket with cash and only carry a small bag (or just a book/magazine to read on the plane), you think I should be physically violated (one-way ticket, paid cash, no luggage)?
That doesn't sound very rational to me.
DRM doesn't make any sense on books. No one even has to "crack" it -- it only takes one person with access to type the book into an open format and distribute it.
Type the books? Why would you do that? Just scan them.
The publishers can either suck it up and realize this, or lose out to the pirates who provide a better, more convenient product for zero cost.
Uh. No. Satellite (at worst) is geosynchronous, which is 500 to 900ms round trip [satsig.net].
IP round trip time from Host A to Host B is measured as: amount of time it takes for Host A to send a message to Host B and then receive a response.
Agreed.
It will take 500 to 900ms for Host A's transmission to go up the satellite link and be received on the ground, and carried to Host B's ISP.
If by "carried to Host B's ISP" you mean sent up to a satellite and back down to an earthstation, I agree. If this traffic is terrestrial, then no.
Then when Host B sends the reply, and it goes from Host B's ISP to the satellite link, it will take another 500 to 900ms to reach Host A.
Again, not unless another satellite hop is involved.
So, the Round trip is actually 1000 to 1800ms.
Geostationary orbit (where communications satellites are generally parked) is 35,786 km. Run the calculation with accurate numbers: 500 to 900 ms round trip. Or just search for "geosynchronous orbit latency in ms". Like so.
Satellite is a high-latency service up to 500 to 900ms one way.
Uh. No. Satellite (at worst) is geosynchronous, which is 500 to 900ms round trip.
The result is that it's slow/unusable for many types of applications, which can't handle a 1 second round-trip delay.
By many applications, you mean some games. Video Teleconferencing works just fine. Many free offerings (such as Skype) work less-fine, but do still work.
In other words, it's not "broadband".
That depends entirely on the definition of "broadband". If you narrowly define it to include lower than 100ms latency (which I have never seen a definition do), it can't be. But if you just specify bandwidth...
You won't be comfortable trying to use VoIP over satellite, and streaming media won't work at all without a stout amount of pre-buffering.
Streaming media only needs bandwidth. VOIP only needs reasonably low jitter. Both are achievable over satellite. YouTube, internet radio, gametrailers.com all work quite well. I even know a number of WOW players who are on the far end of a satellite connection.
While it's far from ideal, it certainly beats dial-up, which may very well also have to pass data through a satellite transponder. There are areas of the country that are not even serviced by copper.
Whether or not you believe he is making it a better country isn't the issue, either... -He- believes that (and so do many others) and he's working on his beliefs.
That's an admirable thing.
So you're saying he's kinda like Jack Thompson?
Except for the part where he's (NYCL) not unprofessional enough to get disbarred, there are certainly similarities. Passion, theatrics, showmanship... I'd have to tip the scales on talent and intelligence in NYCL's favor, though.
In the US (well, the parts I've paid attention to) "real property" is the land and anything attached to it. If you can lift it and carry it out (with or without help) with nothing more than disconnecting it from utilities (or something like a dryer vent) then it not part of the real property.
SNIP
It's rude and a violation of contract to remove anything "secured" to the grounds, and you have to unscrew [the light bulbs] to take them, so they are part of the real property.
So how exactly does your clothes washer connect to the plumbing?
I don't think that the bulbs in the fixtures (as opposed to the existence of some bulbs in the fixtures) is likely to be a point of contention with the law (unless the contract governing transference of ownership says otherwise. YMMV, IANAL, etc.
Looks like he went Tampa to London via Houston (used to be Intercontinental) and then mysteriously flew from Charles DeGaulle in Paris back to Tampa via Newark. (Hmmmmmm.. what of the missing segment? Hmm? Hmm?!!!)
They have these crazy things in Europe called "trains" that connect city centres without having to hang around in an unfashionable suburb for a few hours waiting to be put into a metal tube. You don't even have to take your shoes off to get on them.
Silly Europeans always have such a skewed sense of geography. Newark to Tampa is 1,000 miles, exactly. It's a two and a half hour flight and a 20 hour train ride.
Tampa->Houston->London [missing segment] Paris->Newark->Tampa
Newark to Tampa was a plane ride. London to Paris was the "missing segment" and is a very manageable 214 miles with a 1st class ticket price available from 99GBP.
Yeah, some good advice. I'm married, and while my wife isn't geeky, the same "rules" apply in all marriages, IMO:
Best of luck for your future together! I don't regret getting married for a second.
PS. Also, let her win at things, no matter how good you are. Trust me on this one. Oh, and when you ask her if she's okay and she says, "Nothing's wrong.", give her a hug, because something is definitely wrong!
Add to this:
It's worked for me and my wife for almost 30 years now.
Good luck!
Further additions...
* http://www.violentacres.com/archives/88/a-peaceful-marriage-is-not-always-5050
My Advice...don't get married. It's a trap.
What happens when you get married:
1. Sex stops
2. She get's fat (probably you too)
3. All your money starts disappearing for no apparent reason.
4. You will be surrounded by strange and insufferable relatives from some place you have never heard of.
5. You will get to drive the old car.
6. Gaming did you say? That won't last long. "I can't believe you are going to play on the computer AGAIN. You just played last week!"
7. She will start asking you if she looks fat, despite the fact she is perfectly aware of #2
8. She won't cook (See #1) and she won't be able to make a decent dinner.
9. You will have to leave the house when her literary friends come over to discuss the life analogies in some gay French author's book.
10. LAN parties? No Fucking Way in her house!
If this is a serious post, based on personal experience, you married the wrong woman.
I keep thinking how these approaches would work when applied to books.
Imagine buying a great book, a classic even, that you'd like to have a copy of to reread over the years and maybe introduce your kids to later on.
Now imagine the ink disappearing or turning to gibberish after an allowable reading period (5 years? 1 year? 1 month?). I wonder what your average reader's reaction would be if they pulled their copy of their favourite novel off their bookshelf, opened it, and found it to be completely empty (actually, it would be amusing if the pages could just disintegrate in a puff of smoke!)
Like this? At least the people affected by this got their money back...
Actually it looks even simpler then that.
It looks like $2.31 was his amount and the rest was his CC number, since the 4885 is a typical Visa Check Card sequence issued by BofA.
I wonder if this guy was smart enough to look at his card number and verify that was not the case here, especially before putting it out to the press.
Good suggestion, but there are only 14 digits:
4885 5308 1845 00
If you count the "cents" there are 16, but then the card ends with 0000, and doesn't pass the checksum.
Not at "a slight payload hit". To get the ET up to a reasonable altitude where it won't deorbit shortly would take pretty much the entire OMS fuel budget.
According to the link provided by the parent of the post you replied to, the ET is jettisoned at >97% of orbital velocity. Perhaps I am mistaken (it certainly wouldn't be the first time) but that indicates to me a (relatively) small additional fuel requirement to bring the ET fully to orbital velocity.
There have been some interesting proposals to use the ETs as the backbone of a station, but they've never made it past review.
For political or practical reasons? :o)
I don't understand the thinking behind several parts of your last paragraph - but I am deeply interested in why you think they are so:
I'm not the parent poster, and not religious by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll have a go at giving rational* answers to the questions asked.
- If god is omnipotent / all powerful etc - why do you need to tell others about him? Can he not do this himself if he felt it was the thing to do?
How do you know that He is not? Perhaps he really is speaking through vessels. Due to the existence of free will, others choose to mimic his "chosen" and subvert his message for their own gain. It is your responsibility "to separate the wheat from the chaff", after all.
- If god is generous rewarding etc. - why is there evil in the world>=? Why does he allow situations to occur that turn good people into bad people? (trauma, post-traumatic stress etc.)
Because there is no "good" without "evil". People are given outside influence and are allowed to make choices based on that influence (free will). Lead a "good" life and honor God, you receive eternal reward. If you fall to temptation you suffer the consequence (as it was with Adam and Eve).
- Why heaven - why not just make the real world nice.
It was. Garden of Eden, and all that.
- Why do you believe you know the mind of god? (sorry if I read that wrong - but from your post you seem convinced you do). You may believe that god cannot be mistaken - but do you believe that you cannot be mistaken for thinking you know his mind?
This I can not begin to answer. I certainly don't know the mind of God. I can't know the mind of God. I can't even truly know my own mind.
I am deeply interested in hearing what you have to say on this.
Hopefully my answers were not boring... :o)
*Given the context of an unverifiable story, how rational can any answer based on it be?
Wrong.
Explain? It certainly describes the four fources, very accurately. And no faith is needed, because the four forces exist.
Again, what do you mean by "explain"? It certainly describes time, and its interrelation with space, in ways that religion never even guessed at. And no faith is needed, because time exists.
What, are you asserting that the Universe, the four forces, and time don't exist?
Prove that they do without placing faith in your powers of observation. :o)
Call it what you will, I can see the argument that you have to have "faith" that your observations are correct, and verifiable in order to test hypotheses and promote them to scientific theories. From that argument (and not withstanding the rantings of the parent post) it follows that, at the root, science is based on faith.