40 billion inhabitants always seemed like an absurdly low statistic for Trantor to me... we've got six billion on this planet and probably not enough stuff to fill even a single story planet-wide shell, let alone a hundred mile thick one.
Have Texas be covered by a single, 20 story building. Put hydroponic farms (and power stations, commercial spaces, schools, water storage, etc) on 19 of those 20 stories.
Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet.
And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with not being a whale any more.
This is a complete record of its thoughts from the moment it began its life till the moment it ended it.
Ah... ! What's happening? it thought.
Er, excuse me, who am I?
Hello?
Why am I here? What's my purpose in life?
What do I mean by who am I?
Calm down, get a grip now... oh! this is an interesting sensation, what is it? It's a sort of... yawning, tingling sensation in my... my... well I suppose I'd better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway in what for the sake of it I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let's call it my stomach.
Good. Ooooh, it's getting quite strong. And hey, what about this whistling roaring sound going past what I'm suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that... wind! Is that a good name? It'll do... perhaps I can find a better name for it later when I've found out what it's for. It must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it. Hey! What's this thing? This... let's call it a tail - yeah, tail. Hey! I can really thrash it about pretty good can't I? Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn't seem to achieve very much but I'll probably find out what it's for later on. Now - have I built up any coherent picture of things yet?
No.
Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I'm quite dizzy with anticipation...
Or is it the wind?
There really is a lot of that now isn't there?
And wow! Hey! What's this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like... ow... ound... round... ground! That's it! That's a good name - ground!
I wonder if it will be friends with me?
And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.
Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh No, Not Again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.
However Microsoft isn't saying and most people aren't asking how many of those projected 15 million units will be made into Linux boxes for which the owner isn't buying any games.
I suspect the number is somewhere near twelve.
Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but the Xbox Linux statistics page shows 313,000 downloads, and most of those are probably "hmm, I'm curious, lets see what the code looks like..."
I didn't think I'd like the controller, either, but now I'd want the Xbox controller and Halo control scheme for my PC if I could.
Part of that probably stems from them making the melee and grenade attacks easier than in most FPSes - they're usually an entirely different weapon, which means it takes a lot of time to use 'em. Halo, though... there's nothing better than taking down an Elite's shields with a melee attack, pumping some rounds into him, then sticking a plasma grenade to him and exploding his supporting troops.
Gamespy provides a program that tricks your Xbox into thinking you've got a LAN connection with people who are actually on the Internet, which allows some internet play (laggy as hell, though), but Halo doesn't support Xbox Live.
How do you get premonitions in the real world about what will happen in a computer simulation? How do you take your power out of that simulation and into the real world?
Perhaps the "real" world isn't as "real" as they thought it was?
The single survivor is none other than Agent Smith.
The body is that of the person Smith punches in the chest, then dials out of the Matrix in Neo's prophecy/dream. He's also the guy who cut his hand up with a knife while preparing to stab Neo in Zion, before he was interrupted. Undoubtedly he's the reason the EMP went off early and caused the counterattack to fail miserably, too.
The reason the Jews were rounded up in germany is because hitler passed gun registration and disarmed them.
Uh, no, Hitler just had the world's most powerful army to round them up if necessary. Having a couple of pistols wouldn't do much when the German Panzers came in to raze the ghettos.
Every country that has had gun registration has had a holocaust not too long afterwards.
Australia? The UK? Japan? Most of the rest of the Western world?
See what Jews have to say about the issue
See what one group of Jews have to say about the issue, you mean. I can find plenty of Jews, Christians, New Yorkers, what-have-you for gun control - that doesn't mean they all support it.
Whateve your position-- pro-gay rights, pro-choice, anti-drug war.... all the candidates presented are ones who will do nothing to support it.
Thanks for your assessment, but I find that Dean supports most of my important issues.
And the anti-gun atittude from liberals is truely the mark of people who do not know their history.
Oh? And what history would that be? Afghanistan, Iraq, Nazi Germany, etc. falling to dictators despite lax gun laws?
Or pay attention to the fact that in places where there is wide ownership of guns, crime is lower. Where they are banned, like Washington DC, New York and London, crime-- even gun crime-- is skyrocketing.
That'd be because most places where guns are banned are large urban centers, while the places with less gun regulation are more rural. High crime in big cities is because of the population concentration, not the gun laws.
Does the phrase "continued weapons inspection" mean anything to you? If the wepon inspections had continued for 4-6 months one could have been pretty shure about: a. No WMD, leave Iraq alone. b. WMD, UN invation. c. No cooperation/failure to show information-> UN invation.
Bullshit. Weapons inspections had been starting and stopping for 12 years. Each time the UN basically said "ah well, we'll give them ONE more chance!"
Certainly, it doesn't justify the lies the Bush Administration has told to prompt the recent war, but we've seen Saddam's WMD when he used 'em on the Kurds and the Iranians.
The space shuttle burned up because it was going about 17,000 miles per hour - orbital velocity - when it started re-entry. The LearJet, on the other hand, is going to be going a mere Mach 3 (as it's just sub-orbital) - far more manageable.
A carrier battlegroup, however, is free to use active sonar. Being quiet doesn't do anything when that happens.
Seeing as a carrier deploys sonar bouys with its helicopters and S-3 Vikings when in a potentially dangerous situation, it'd be hard to just sneak up on it.
CIWS cannons aren't the only thing that can take down an anti-ship missile. The carrier's air wing would be engaging the incoming missiles (or bombers, if the missiles hadn't been launched yet) at least 200 miles out with air-to-air missiles, and the AEGIS cruisers in the battle group would be able to take some down with surface-to-air missiles.
I'm sure the Navy has already considered scenarios where multiple missiles are launched - you're not the first to think of it.:-p
Slashdot Mirror
40 billion inhabitants always seemed like an absurdly low statistic for Trantor to me... we've got six billion on this planet and probably not enough stuff to fill even a single story planet-wide shell, let alone a hundred mile thick one.
Have Texas be covered by a single, 20 story building. Put hydroponic farms (and power stations, commercial spaces, schools, water storage, etc) on 19 of those 20 stories.
Problem solved.
"Welcome to Texas - The World's Largest Building"
Which results in my favorite passage ever.
Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet.
And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with not being a whale any more.
This is a complete record of its thoughts from the moment it began its life till the moment it ended it.
Ah... ! What's happening? it thought.
Er, excuse me, who am I?
Hello?
Why am I here? What's my purpose in life?
What do I mean by who am I?
Calm down, get a grip now... oh! this is an interesting sensation, what is it? It's a sort of... yawning, tingling sensation in my... my... well I suppose I'd better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway in what for the sake of it I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let's call it my stomach.
Good. Ooooh, it's getting quite strong. And hey, what about this whistling roaring sound going past what I'm suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that... wind! Is that a good name? It'll do... perhaps I can find a better name for it later when I've found out what it's for. It must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it. Hey! What's this thing? This... let's call it a tail - yeah, tail. Hey! I can really thrash it about pretty good can't I? Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn't seem to achieve very much but I'll probably find out what it's for later on. Now - have I built up any coherent picture of things yet?
No.
Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I'm quite dizzy with anticipation...
Or is it the wind?
There really is a lot of that now isn't there?
And wow! Hey! What's this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like... ow... ound... round... ground! That's it! That's a good name - ground!
I wonder if it will be friends with me?
And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.
Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh No, Not Again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.
However Microsoft isn't saying and most people aren't asking how many of those projected 15 million units will be made into Linux boxes for which the owner isn't buying any games.
I suspect the number is somewhere near twelve.
Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but the Xbox Linux statistics page shows 313,000 downloads, and most of those are probably "hmm, I'm curious, lets see what the code looks like..."
I didn't think I'd like the controller, either, but now I'd want the Xbox controller and Halo control scheme for my PC if I could.
:-)
Part of that probably stems from them making the melee and grenade attacks easier than in most FPSes - they're usually an entirely different weapon, which means it takes a lot of time to use 'em. Halo, though... there's nothing better than taking down an Elite's shields with a melee attack, pumping some rounds into him, then sticking a plasma grenade to him and exploding his supporting troops.
Ahhh...
As far as I know, the Mac version was scrapped. It was initially for Mac/PC, but it became an Xbox exclusive when MS bought Bungie up.
Not with Halo, you can't.
Gamespy provides a program that tricks your Xbox into thinking you've got a LAN connection with people who are actually on the Internet, which allows some internet play (laggy as hell, though), but Halo doesn't support Xbox Live.
but I still won't buy it even if it's the "prison within a prison" scenario. It will take a lot of explaining to get that one fixed for me
What's insufficient about the prison-within-a-prison explanation? If that's indeed the case, it explains everything quite tidily.
How do you get premonitions in the real world about what will happen in a computer simulation? How do you take your power out of that simulation and into the real world?
Perhaps the "real" world isn't as "real" as they thought it was?
Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
Of course, 10 minutes later, Morpheus tells Neo what the Matrix is. Heh...
Looks like you missed something.
The single survivor is none other than Agent Smith.
The body is that of the person Smith punches in the chest, then dials out of the Matrix in Neo's prophecy/dream. He's also the guy who cut his hand up with a knife while preparing to stab Neo in Zion, before he was interrupted. Undoubtedly he's the reason the EMP went off early and caused the counterattack to fail miserably, too.
Welcome to my friends list!
3
Are you gay, or are you just using them to troll?
Because it seems that just about the entire gay community disagrees with your assessment of Dean.
Actually, that SQL will work just fine in a number of popular databases. mySQL, for one... apparently Access databases as well
The reason the Jews were rounded up in germany is because hitler passed gun registration and disarmed them.
Uh, no, Hitler just had the world's most powerful army to round them up if necessary. Having a couple of pistols wouldn't do much when the German Panzers came in to raze the ghettos.
Every country that has had gun registration has had a holocaust not too long afterwards.
Australia? The UK? Japan? Most of the rest of the Western world?
See what Jews have to say about the issue
See what one group of Jews have to say about the issue, you mean. I can find plenty of Jews, Christians, New Yorkers, what-have-you for gun control - that doesn't mean they all support it.
The Myth of Nazi Gun Control
All sides are equally at fault, yes. The point was that there's undeniable evidence that Iraq did at one point have WMD.
Whateve your position-- pro-gay rights, pro-choice, anti-drug war.... all the candidates presented are ones who will do nothing to support it.
Thanks for your assessment, but I find that Dean supports most of my important issues.
And the anti-gun atittude from liberals is truely the mark of people who do not know their history.
Oh? And what history would that be? Afghanistan, Iraq, Nazi Germany, etc. falling to dictators despite lax gun laws?
Or pay attention to the fact that in places where there is wide ownership of guns, crime is lower. Where they are banned, like Washington DC, New York and London, crime-- even gun crime-- is skyrocketing.
That'd be because most places where guns are banned are large urban centers, while the places with less gun regulation are more rural. High crime in big cities is because of the population concentration, not the gun laws.
I bet Dean is ... anti-gay rights ...
Actually, he's the one responsible for the legalization of same sex civil unions in Vermont. Here's more on Dean's pro-gay rights stance.
Does the phrase "continued weapons inspection" mean anything to you?
If the wepon inspections had continued for 4-6 months one could have been pretty shure about:
a. No WMD, leave Iraq alone.
b. WMD, UN invation.
c. No cooperation/failure to show information-> UN invation.
Bullshit. Weapons inspections had been starting and stopping for 12 years. Each time the UN basically said "ah well, we'll give them ONE more chance!"
As for this being another "Vietname" or "quagmire", check the body count since Bush claimed the war was "over".
I suggest you check out this insightful article on ArabNews regarding "another Vietnam".
Certainly, it doesn't justify the lies the Bush Administration has told to prompt the recent war, but we've seen Saddam's WMD when he used 'em on the Kurds and the Iranians.
Nice reference!
The space shuttle burned up because it was going about 17,000 miles per hour - orbital velocity - when it started re-entry. The LearJet, on the other hand, is going to be going a mere Mach 3 (as it's just sub-orbital) - far more manageable.
A carrier battlegroup, however, is free to use active sonar. Being quiet doesn't do anything when that happens.
Seeing as a carrier deploys sonar bouys with its helicopters and S-3 Vikings when in a potentially dangerous situation, it'd be hard to just sneak up on it.
CIWS cannons aren't the only thing that can take down an anti-ship missile. The carrier's air wing would be engaging the incoming missiles (or bombers, if the missiles hadn't been launched yet) at least 200 miles out with air-to-air missiles, and the AEGIS cruisers in the battle group would be able to take some down with surface-to-air missiles.
:-p
I'm sure the Navy has already considered scenarios where multiple missiles are launched - you're not the first to think of it.