it was observed in 1054 by astronomers all over the known world at the time
...except in Europe, where they appear to have missed it. Either the weather sucked, or some aspect of Medieval theology prompted them to shut up about it.
Yes, it will cost California some money. But the root problem is that Texas is a big state with a lot of pupils, and its textbook orders are a significant part of a publisher's revenue. The publishers would rather publish one edition acceptable to all the states than customize them, so Texas has been dictating textbook content to much of the country.
But California is a big state too, and if it shows the balls to refuse to be dictated to by Texas, the publishers are going to have to do something about it -- especially if a couple of other big states come on board. It shouldn't cost the publishers that much more to release a standard edition and a Texas teabagger edition.
And the fallout from that might embarrass Texas enough to join the 21st century. Well, maybe the 20th.
I seem to recall when I was in school, if you brought candy you were ENCOURAGED to share with the class.
A classmate of mine in 5th grade tried to test that once. The teacher spotted him chewing gum and announced "Well, I hope you brought enough for ALL of us!" Whereupon he stood up with a sack of gum and started handing it out.
...that a computer can take over a car. They believe that the audience is a bunch of rubes who will buy that sort of thing. And guess what? They seem to sell a lot of tickets. rj
Yes: it's called "pleading in the alternative". In effect, the defense is saying "My client didn't do what the complainant accuses him of. But even if you decide he did, the complainant still has no case because the act is not unlawful."
John Keegan tells of an area in France along the Somme where the freeze-thaw cycles still bring unexploded shells to the surface that landed there in 1916. The sugar-beet farms are worked by unmanned machines dragged across the fields on cables. Every so often a machine stops with a CLANK, and the army comes and takes the shell away.
A lot of people can't view stereograms simply because the people who publish them do a piss-poor job of explaining how to do it. They say to move in close until the picture is "blurry", when the real objective is to deconverge your binocular image and reconverge it with the two individual images displaced by one repetition of the pattern.
When people finally do succeed, there's often an "OH! I get it!" reaction.
The publishers seem to be assuming that the viewer is too ignorant to understand "convergence", so they take advantage of the fact that most of us will closely couple convergence with focus.
Simple. Get one of those little plastic containers of jelly they serve in restaurants and tape it over the mike. Near-total sound absorption.
Of course it looks a little dorky, but if you don't know how to disable the mike input, you play the cards you're dealt.
But as mccgrew says, the elegant solution involves a lawyer interested in a cut of your new-found wealth.
Slashdot Mirror
Google the Mormon doctrine of "blood atonement" and all will become clear.
rj
...wouldn't want to put Taco Bell out of business.
rj
And so will your flying car.
rj
Rent The Man Who Would Be King and you'll hear Michael Caine say it.
rj
rj
...and Peter Jairus Frigate.
rj
Yeah, but Clementine managed to deal with that -- oops, sorry, thought you were talking about Winston Churchill.
rj
Yes, it will cost California some money. But the root problem is that Texas is a big state with a lot of pupils, and its textbook orders are a significant part of a publisher's revenue. The publishers would rather publish one edition acceptable to all the states than customize them, so Texas has been dictating textbook content to much of the country.
But California is a big state too, and if it shows the balls to refuse to be dictated to by Texas, the publishers are going to have to do something about it -- especially if a couple of other big states come on board. It shouldn't cost the publishers that much more to release a standard edition and a Texas teabagger edition.
And the fallout from that might embarrass Texas enough to join the 21st century. Well, maybe the 20th.
rj
A classmate of mine in 5th grade tried to test that once. The teacher spotted him chewing gum and announced "Well, I hope you brought enough for ALL of us!" Whereupon he stood up with a sack of gum and started handing it out.
Poor guy...
rj
Certainly. All you have to do is build a gravitational-energy collecting device the size of the oceans.
rj
...that a computer can take over a car. They believe that the audience is a bunch of rubes who will buy that sort of thing.
And guess what? They seem to sell a lot of tickets.
rj
#include "IANAL.h"
Yes: it's called "pleading in the alternative". In effect, the defense is saying "My client didn't do what the complainant accuses him of. But even if you decide he did, the complainant still has no case because the act is not unlawful."
rj
No thanks...I already have a cleaver.
rj
John Keegan tells of an area in France along the Somme where the freeze-thaw cycles still bring unexploded shells to the surface that landed there in 1916. The sugar-beet farms are worked by unmanned machines dragged across the fields on cables. Every so often a machine stops with a CLANK, and the army comes and takes the shell away.
Keegan calls it a place where the earth vomits.
rj
I have to say...seeing school administrators being treated to "zero tolerance" would be very sweet schadenfreude.
rj
When people finally do succeed, there's often an "OH! I get it!" reaction.
The publishers seem to be assuming that the viewer is too ignorant to understand "convergence", so they take advantage of the fact that most of us will closely couple convergence with focus.
rj
Hell, people whine about having to work in cubicles. Hard to have much sympathy when you've worked in a bullpen...
rj
Never had children, have you?
rj
...if a driver is using a hands-free phone? Watch for lip motion?
rj
Umm, you're aware online gambling isn't done with Monopoly money, right?
rj
How many Volkswagens equal one Mini-Cooper?
rj
OK...I shall post a message that you like to set fire to puppies. If you make me take it down, we'll know you do.
rj
That there's no such person as Edward Teller? It's always Edward Tellerfatherofthehydrogenbomb...
rj
You'll find the same with car rentals.
rj
Simple. Get one of those little plastic containers of jelly they serve in restaurants and tape it over the mike. Near-total sound absorption. Of course it looks a little dorky, but if you don't know how to disable the mike input, you play the cards you're dealt.
But as mccgrew says, the elegant solution involves a lawyer interested in a cut of your new-found wealth.
rj