Re:Hold on, I need to type a message to 911...
on
Microsoft's 911 Patent
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
ISTR that the issue was not "freedom of movement" but "freedom from the damned governemnt telling me I have to wear a seatbelt".
The US had basically an Idiot Olympics between the "live free or die" bunch who felt that a law mandating the use of seatbelts in a moving vehicle was an affront to the principles that made America great, since seatbelts weren't mentioned in the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights.
Meanwhile in lane two, we had the social busybodies who figured out that if people were not smart enough to wear a seatbelt, then the car should make them. The Airbag (or passive restraint system or supplementary restraint system) was intended to meet this invented need.
And the car manufacturers looked upon this, and saw that it was good, because they could raise car prices for a government mandated "option". And the children were saved. And the elected officials could say that they had passed law to make Americans safer from their own stupidity.
Of course, the first generation airbags could kill people too. So now we have all kinds of misery about how you must wear a seatbelt in a car with an airbag, because otherwise the airbag will kill you!
?
But that's what works in science fiction -- you can explore and challenge the ideas/politics/religion/philosophy of the day in ways that make people think.
Look at the furor about (for example) that recent movie about the Reagans -- the Republican Church of St. Ronnie the Forgetful were all over that, and that was a craptacular movie in the first place.
But you could write a really good science fiction story around any of your dystopian points above, and be able to express some alternative points of view. Sometimes Star Trek did this (at least as far as Voyager), and certainly Babylon-5 explored some of the dark side of humanity.
David Drake has written some good (and some really bad) SF stories based on classic tales, and has written a lot about the War in Vietnam against the backdrop of a group of very successful space mercenaries.
But to a lot of people at the networks, "science fiction" means set it on a space ship, put the women in skimpy costumes (not a bad thing) and blow shit up! Glen Larson (who created the original "Battlestar Galactica") was at a convention back last century where he bitterly talked about how the network had come in and offered the following notes:
* the Cylons must never be shown killing a human
* the humans must win every encounter against the Cylon menance
* you can't show the good guys doing bad things
and a few others. As he said, it made it hard to tell a story about a group of survivors that were fighting for their lives in the face of a superior menace.
So Star Trek (or whatever follows it) needs to get back to the roots of science fiction, and explore ideas that may be distasteful to some and boring to others. And Sturgeon's Law applies, of course, so a lot of it will be crap.
Not sure it would make any difference. America (specifically the currdent administration) seems to be spending more money than they take in from taxes anyway. And how are we planning to raise money to pay for it? Tax cuts.
Hey, remember Oklahoma City and the Murrah Building (1995 or so)?
The dust had not settled before the various talk-radio shows were talking about Arabs (in various derogatory terms involving rags, towels and heads) and how we should go kick some righteous butt.
Then turns out to be (whoops) a White Christian American male or two who done it.
Suddenly this wasn't terrorism any more, but a nasty criminal act. And we got the guys who did it, so that's all right then.
I really and truly feel sorry for the families of the people who died in the Murrah building collapse. Both for the family members they lost, and for the fact that their loss never became the national obsession/shrine/religion that the attacks of 9/11 became.
I think a reputable electronics shop in Tottenham Court Road counts as anywhere where the salesman doesn't have to open the boot (trunk) to give you your purchase.
"Honest, officer, I bought the whole lot from a man I met in a bar, the name of which for the moment escapes me"
A laser beam in the 5-20 mW range firing at a distance of (let us say) two miles is exceedingly unlikely to blind both pilots nor to cause permanent damage to the retina. I'm figuring the following as the scenario:
plane is on final approach to land (close to the ground, moderately slow moving, on the glidepath/on the glideslope)
fuckwit with laser pointer (or terrorist with suspected anti-aircraft weapon if you prefer) is most likely at the far end of the active runway plus a little bit further
So we have a couple of cases:
(a) commercial aircraft coming in to land, pilot flying gets a green flash across his eyes, loses his visual acuity/situational awareness for a moment, utters a plea to the nameless god and most likely presses the TOGA button or causes the co-pilot to ram the throttles forward and take over the aircraft, executes a "missed approach" and goes back up into the air and orbits a while while the crew figure out what the fuck just happened.
(b)private plane, same situation. Either the pilot continues to land (in something like a small Cessna C172 or the like, the plane is more or less flying itself if it is established on the final approach -- flare back as you feel the ground effect and wait for the mighty thump as the wheels hit the runway) or the pilot pushes the throttle all the way back in, executes a missed approach and goes back up into the air while the dots in front of his eyes clear out.
In all cases, pilot is discussing his actions with the tower/unicom/WATCH frequency and figuring out whether to divert, try again or whatever.
Worst case, most towers/controllers can talk the plane down to the ground as long as the pilot is able to still turn the handles and press the little pedals and stuff.
So I figure the guy should be done for felony stupid, but not shipped off to Gitmo just yet.
[on topic bit] I have to say that the DVD of the fourth(?) season was worth it for the commentary track for "Prodigy" (about the really fscking smart USAF cadet), just to hear them sing the lyrics to the opening theme. And you thought "Faith of the Heart" rocked???
The one thing that Stargate and Atlantis (and the Tomb Raider movies) have that drives me batshit crazy is that they come across this ancient technology, in a pyramid somewhere that's been untouched since Avogadro could only count to 15. Someone presses a button/turns a knob/passes in front of it... and the damned thing springs into life and starts doing whatever the smeg it was doing the last time it was used.
I compare this with how much time I spent on Saturday trying to get the damned snow-blower to start (and I last ran it a month ago to make sure that all the bits went round-and-round -- apparently it's allergic to cold weather)...
On the faint assumption that you are in fact not a troll...
The licence (as it is correctly spelled in civilized parts of the world) shows that you have passed an examination, and that you know (or knew at one time in the past) enough to drive your car on the public roads without endangering others.
[way OT] I for one would welcome a similar test before you were allowed to carry a gun in public... as someone who was trained in gun safety by some very unkind and rude people ("yes sergeant, this recruit is listening"), I'm amazed that the second amendment gives Wierd Uncle Harold the right to carry a shotgun merely by accident of birth.
Re:The logistics of building the Death Star
on
Star Wars Minutiae
·
· Score: 4, Funny
I'd rather have some of this stuff scattered in an unusable form offshore than have Mohammed and his band of Merry Pranksters get their hands on 4 or 5 cities' worth of U-235.
While it is currently fashionable to believe that the only terrorists in the world are those of middle-eastern descent or belief, there are enough home grown idiots with grudges against the government to go out there with the bass-boat, a winch and a case or two of beer.
Let us not forget the home-grown nutcases and whack-jobs of the ilk of McVeigh, Koresh and Kaczynski (?sp). But heck, the Americans would probably invade Iran (or whoever is next on the Axis of Terror) if the IRA admitted igniting the damn thing.
Why do you think it is "reasonable" that I need to show an ID in order to board an aircraft as a passenger (ie Self-Loading Freight)? I agree that you might want to make sure that the pilot was in fact a pilot (and not just some guy who spent last night at a Holiday Inn Express), but I really don't see what value is added by saying "Papers, please" for an airplane.
And your assertion that "the law is clear" is perhaps dubious -- that's the point of Gilmore's case, that the law is neither clear nor (perhaps) the law, so show me.
I sure as heck don't need to show ID to get on a bus or a train, or even to get into a car as a passenger. (all journeys assumed to be within the confines of the continental USA for purposes of discussion, eg I'm flying the shuttle down to NYC from Boston, or taking the Acela, or the Greyhound)
Atually, the BATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, what more do you need?) explicitly do not classify a potato cannon as a firearm requiring a license. Here's some kid's copy of the standard letter but the meat of the matter is this:
The Bureau has previously examined devices known as "Spud Guns, Potato
Guns, or Spudzookas" and have determined that such devices, in and of
themselves, are not firearms as defined in Title 18 United States Code
(U.S.C.), Chapter 44, S 921(a)(3) or 26 U.S.C., Chapter 53, S 5845.
I think part of the issue is that it will be so freakin' hard for him to get to his place of business during the DNC.
Between all the police, SS, DoHS, civilian contractors and other protectors of the public paranoia trying to ensure that no-one gets close enough to do anything nasty to the delegates at the convention (like, oh I don't know, expose them to an opposing opinion), I can see why someone across the road from the Fleet might say "AMF" for the next week.
I wonder if the Will Smith action-adventure "I, Robot" will be nominated next year? After all, that's based on the collected works of Isaac Asimov but updated by the writer that brought us "Batman and Robin"
This is a good year for fiction in Boston; we have Noreascon and the Democratic Convention! Man, all this and RMS too!
Worse than that. The local town gets some small sales tax on all items sold via home shopping channels in that town (at least, this is the case in my local town where I used to be on the Cable Advisory Committee). So the board of selectmen are more than happy to see 5 or 6 QVC, HSN... channels, and actually supported removing the NASA channel and something else (I forget what right now) from the local line-up to make room for another shopping channel.
Slashdot Mirror
Nah, they do this every week on ,b>CSI
(dons flameproof suit)
The US had basically an Idiot Olympics between the "live free or die" bunch who felt that a law mandating the use of seatbelts in a moving vehicle was an affront to the principles that made America great, since seatbelts weren't mentioned in the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights.
Meanwhile in lane two, we had the social busybodies who figured out that if people were not smart enough to wear a seatbelt, then the car should make them. The Airbag (or passive restraint system or supplementary restraint system) was intended to meet this invented need.
And the car manufacturers looked upon this, and saw that it was good, because they could raise car prices for a government mandated "option". And the children were saved. And the elected officials could say that they had passed law to make Americans safer from their own stupidity.
Of course, the first generation airbags could kill people too. So now we have all kinds of misery about how you must wear a seatbelt in a car with an airbag, because otherwise the airbag will kill you! ?
Look at the furor about (for example) that recent movie about the Reagans -- the Republican Church of St. Ronnie the Forgetful were all over that, and that was a craptacular movie in the first place.
But you could write a really good science fiction story around any of your dystopian points above, and be able to express some alternative points of view. Sometimes Star Trek did this (at least as far as Voyager), and certainly Babylon-5 explored some of the dark side of humanity.
David Drake has written some good (and some really bad) SF stories based on classic tales, and has written a lot about the War in Vietnam against the backdrop of a group of very successful space mercenaries.
But to a lot of people at the networks, "science fiction" means set it on a space ship, put the women in skimpy costumes (not a bad thing) and blow shit up! Glen Larson (who created the original "Battlestar Galactica") was at a convention back last century where he bitterly talked about how the network had come in and offered the following notes:
* the Cylons must never be shown killing a human
* the humans must win every encounter against the Cylon menance
* you can't show the good guys doing bad things
and a few others. As he said, it made it hard to tell a story about a group of survivors that were fighting for their lives in the face of a superior menace.
So Star Trek (or whatever follows it) needs to get back to the roots of science fiction, and explore ideas that may be distasteful to some and boring to others. And Sturgeon's Law applies, of course, so a lot of it will be crap.
I don't understand it myself.
You insensitive clod!
The dust had not settled before the various talk-radio shows were talking about Arabs (in various derogatory terms involving rags, towels and heads) and how we should go kick some righteous butt.
Then turns out to be (whoops) a White Christian American male or two who done it.
Suddenly this wasn't terrorism any more, but a nasty criminal act. And we got the guys who did it, so that's all right then.
I really and truly feel sorry for the families of the people who died in the Murrah building collapse. Both for the family members they lost, and for the fact that their loss never became the national obsession/shrine/religion that the attacks of 9/11 became.
"Honest, officer, I bought the whole lot from a man I met in a bar, the name of which for the moment escapes me"
A laser beam in the 5-20 mW range firing at a distance of (let us say) two miles is exceedingly unlikely to blind both pilots nor to cause permanent damage to the retina. I'm figuring the following as the scenario:
plane is on final approach to land (close to the ground, moderately slow moving, on the glidepath/on the glideslope)
fuckwit with laser pointer (or terrorist with suspected anti-aircraft weapon if you prefer) is most likely at the far end of the active runway plus a little bit further
So we have a couple of cases:
(a) commercial aircraft coming in to land, pilot flying gets a green flash across his eyes, loses his visual acuity/situational awareness for a moment, utters a plea to the nameless god and most likely presses the TOGA button or causes the co-pilot to ram the throttles forward and take over the aircraft, executes a "missed approach" and goes back up into the air and orbits a while while the crew figure out what the fuck just happened.
(b)private plane, same situation. Either the pilot continues to land (in something like a small Cessna C172 or the like, the plane is more or less flying itself if it is established on the final approach -- flare back as you feel the ground effect and wait for the mighty thump as the wheels hit the runway) or the pilot pushes the throttle all the way back in, executes a missed approach and goes back up into the air while the dots in front of his eyes clear out.
In all cases, pilot is discussing his actions with the tower/unicom/WATCH frequency and figuring out whether to divert, try again or whatever.
Worst case, most towers/controllers can talk the plane down to the ground as long as the pilot is able to still turn the handles and press the little pedals and stuff.
So I figure the guy should be done for felony stupid, but not shipped off to Gitmo just yet.
Time to work on the Planetary Orbit Research Network instead???
Never driven in Massachusetts, have you?
The one thing that Stargate and Atlantis (and the Tomb Raider movies) have that drives me batshit crazy is that they come across this ancient technology, in a pyramid somewhere that's been untouched since Avogadro could only count to 15. Someone presses a button/turns a knob/passes in front of it... and the damned thing springs into life and starts doing whatever the smeg it was doing the last time it was used.
I compare this with how much time I spent on Saturday trying to get the damned snow-blower to start (and I last ran it a month ago to make sure that all the bits went round-and-round -- apparently it's allergic to cold weather)...
Argh.
Do you have a cite for this assertion?
and taking responsibility for your own actions is even more of a bitch.
Oh sorry, I guess that's un-American these days.
The licence (as it is correctly spelled in civilized parts of the world) shows that you have passed an examination, and that you know (or knew at one time in the past) enough to drive your car on the public roads without endangering others.
[way OT] I for one would welcome a similar test before you were allowed to carry a gun in public... as someone who was trained in gun safety by some very unkind and rude people ("yes sergeant, this recruit is listening"), I'm amazed that the second amendment gives Wierd Uncle Harold the right to carry a shotgun merely by accident of birth.
It's not a Death Star. It's a ... Freedom Globe
Let us not forget the home-grown nutcases and whack-jobs of the ilk of McVeigh, Koresh and Kaczynski (?sp). But heck, the Americans would probably invade Iran (or whoever is next on the Axis of Terror) if the IRA admitted igniting the damn thing.
And your assertion that "the law is clear" is perhaps dubious -- that's the point of Gilmore's case, that the law is neither clear nor (perhaps) the law, so show me.
I sure as heck don't need to show ID to get on a bus or a train, or even to get into a car as a passenger. (all journeys assumed to be within the confines of the continental USA for purposes of discussion, eg I'm flying the shuttle down to NYC from Boston, or taking the Acela, or the Greyhound)
I think part of the issue is that it will be so freakin' hard for him to get to his place of business during the DNC.
Between all the police, SS, DoHS, civilian contractors and other protectors of the public paranoia trying to ensure that no-one gets close enough to do anything nasty to the delegates at the convention (like, oh I don't know, expose them to an opposing opinion), I can see why someone across the road from the Fleet might say "AMF" for the next week.
One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison
Now what can we do with Linspire ??
Looks a lot like the Corbin Sparrow, which was billed as an enclosed motorcycle rather than a single-seater car,
This is a good year for fiction in Boston; we have Noreascon and the Democratic Convention! Man, all this and RMS too!
Worse than that. The local town gets some small sales tax on all items sold via home shopping channels in that town (at least, this is the case in my local town where I used to be on the Cable Advisory Committee). So the board of selectmen are more than happy to see 5 or 6 QVC, HSN ... channels, and actually supported removing the NASA channel and something else (I forget what right now) from the local line-up to make room for another shopping channel.
Well, it IS an election year after all.