Basic arithmetic is a good skill to have. Good... necessary. No matter what you do, being able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide are skills that you cannot get by without. Thus it pays to be able to do them without a calculator.
Communication, like arithmetic, is also fundamental. You NEED to be able to impart your ideas to others, and the more efficiently and adventageously you can do that the better. Practicing proper spelling and grammar does that.
You say the brain is finite... but when was the last time you had to stop thinking? Have you ever seen the Far Side comic where a student asks the teacher to be excused because his "brain is full"? Have you ever met or heard of anyone that has happened to? One person who was made to learn his multiplication tables who was unable to progress in his work because of the knowledge?
When you find someone so afflicted, be it by the tables, or by the study of grammar and spelling, let me know.
It was the episode where Homer became an astronaut. He was up on the shuttle, and he ended up breaking an ant farm and releasing all the ants. So the ants were floating around in the microgravity, and when Kent Brockman was relaying the story on the news, the picture that came in from the shuttle was an ant on the camera, and many floating around in the background.
So Kent Brockman says:
"Ladies and gentlemen, er, we've just lost the picture, but,
uh, what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft
has been taken over -- "conquered", if you will -- by a master
race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this
vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men
or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no
stopping them; the ants will soon be here.
And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to
remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful
in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar
caves."
Great episode. A very good one to watch, if you get a chance.
Eight gigs of RAM may be quite continental But diamonds are a geek's best friend Broadband may be grand but it won't pay the rental On your humble flat or help you at the automat
Girls grow cold as comps grow old We all lose our root in the end But square cut or pear shape These rocks don't lose their shape
Diamonds are a geek's best friend Yeah diamonds are a geek's best friend
So... you've singlehandedly discovered the two and ONLY two methods for long distance human space travel? Sheesh... they should give you that science prize they give out every year... or whatever.
If humans have figured out how to surpass the speed of sound without liquifying themselves, how to travel in space while breathing at the same time, how to send messages invisibly through the air, and how to produce instant burritos, then humans are going to figure out a way around the problems of distance and time. Portable wormholes, warp drives, hyperspace, or something cool. There was a time when it took weeks or months(or more) to cross a continent; now such trips take less than a day. As Flash Gordon as it sounds, such will also one day be true of trips to distant stars. Judging an endeavor's success or failure on a thirty year old experiment is not something one can do out of hand in this day and age.
People's "I want it now!" attitude is disturbing. But why assume that's what drugs and technology will be used for.
Because... that's what they will be used for. Humans will remain humans. Or do you think there's been a dramatic change in thinking since the last time something was invented and abused?
Just consider this a premptive rant against abusers.
Adversity builds character. No matter what you do, there are still going to be people significantly better suited to doing certain things than you are.
But let's suppose that some drug is created that improves you significantly across the board. You grow up performing just as well as the other kids, all taking the drug and all conquering math, music, and language with ease. You've reached adulthood without any physical, mental, or, lucky you, emotional inequalities, inadequacies, or setbacks-- what happens when you run into something that challenges your superman status? Your language boosted mind discovers some ancient atlantian, and can't grok it right away. Or your tripped out scientific thinking center can't quite figure out why that one gene doesn't seem to be doing what it should. Or god forbid someone close to you gets sick, and can't be cured? How do you deal?
Humans grow through adversity. It is how we learn academically and improve emotionally. Muscles unused atrophy, and knowledge unused is forgotten. There seems a troubling trend(or perhaps tradation) of taking damaging short cuts around facing difficulty. For it we either stop growing at that difficulty and become dependent on the short cut to go through the motions of living, or we become dependent on the short cut and try to go further, only to be stymied by that which we skipped over.
Don't make the relatively simple too easy. You'll only pay for it later.
Actually, I haven't. Are you talking about short or long series? Both are released, of course, as serials, and the long ones were and are designed to be bought as such. No one really had it in mind that someone would want to buy twenty years of work at once.
But what prices are you seeing, specifically?(rather than continuing to talk through my hat)
Generous of you. You make it sound as if a mortgage is required to purchase entertainment.
It is the right of the vendor to set his prices, and for non-necessities, such as entertainment, he has the right to set them as low or high as he wants. He sets the price too high, he starves. Simple economics. No one is entitled to someone else's entertainment-- some people are good at making it, and the rest of us have become accustomed to having it.
It is the artist's prerogative to be a greedy bastard if he wants, and no matter how greedy he may get, it doesn't make right the idea of a bit of piracy here and there while a better deal "gets sorted out". But I don't see many greedy bastards... they don't survive long.
You automatically get a year to think it over. A lot of the decision depends on how long you usual keep a computer/plan on keeping this one. I have a powerbook(am actively typing on it right now), with Applecare, and have been really happy that I've got Applecare. I tend to be rough/clumsy/unlucky with my stuff occasionally... and laptops don't jive with any of those. I broke the screen once by dropping it(long drop for a laptop), and had to pay for it(the rest of the thing was fine). All my other repairs though have been covered(broken backlight, weird harddrive problem, one or two problems with the DVD drive). That stuff got fixed, and both quickly and not out of my wallet. It's paid for itself several times over for me, and by the time it runs out early next year, I'll have gotten a new laptop(with another Applecare warranty).
Chances are aliens will be made of it-- matter, that is. There's more matter near stars, especially more tightly packed matter as is likely to make up or provide nutrition or building materials for them.
... was concerned with taking action and being an advocate against injustice. The poster percieves this issue to be an injustice and believes it should be spoken out against. It is a good quote to use for such a purpose... regardless of which side I may or may not be on on the issue.
Let not the quote wither in perpetual disuse. No one is getting killed in this issue, Use of this quote neither kills anyone nor cheapens the tragedy of its original subjects.
Keys are a fairly common thing to lose... but I lose everything else too. If I got one of these it would just mean that I'd have to have a tag for the base station.
Maybe I should just forgo material possessions so I can get all my stuff back. It would be easier... and cheaper.
*bork*
Or another excuse to not pay attention
on
Wozniak Unveils WozNet
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Introducing WozCrutch, a product with some good possible implementations, but that will be used more often for the bad. Let it watch your kids, pets, anyone or anything you care about, so you can forget to. They don't move as fast as you think they do anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
Welcome, and don't apologize... I've just been hearing that quote a lot, for a long time, and happened to know about the episode repository. ^^;;
*honks*
Basic arithmetic is a good skill to have. Good... necessary. No matter what you do, being able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide are skills that you cannot get by without. Thus it pays to be able to do them without a calculator.
Communication, like arithmetic, is also fundamental. You NEED to be able to impart your ideas to others, and the more efficiently and adventageously you can do that the better. Practicing proper spelling and grammar does that.
You say the brain is finite... but when was the last time you had to stop thinking? Have you ever seen the Far Side comic where a student asks the teacher to be excused because his "brain is full"? Have you ever met or heard of anyone that has happened to? One person who was made to learn his multiplication tables who was unable to progress in his work because of the knowledge?
When you find someone so afflicted, be it by the tables, or by the study of grammar and spelling, let me know.
*honk*
It was the episode where Homer became an astronaut. He was up on the shuttle, and he ended up breaking an ant farm and releasing all the ants. So the ants were floating around in the microgravity, and when Kent Brockman was relaying the story on the news, the picture that came in from the shuttle was an ant on the camera, and many floating around in the background.
(A page on the episode, with the quote)
So Kent Brockman says:
"Ladies and gentlemen, er, we've just lost the picture, but, uh, what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has been taken over -- "conquered", if you will -- by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves."
Great episode. A very good one to watch, if you get a chance.
*honks*
I have been watching waaaay too much anime recently.
*honks*
Billy goats... wasn't there enough troll food already?
*honkenpossiblyobscure*
Eight gigs of RAM may be quite continental
But diamonds are a geek's best friend
Broadband may be grand but it won't pay the rental
On your humble flat or help you at the automat
Girls grow cold as comps grow old
We all lose our root in the end
But square cut or pear shape
These rocks don't lose their shape
Diamonds are a geek's best friend
Yeah diamonds are a geek's best friend
*honk*
if they really are using anime as a blueprint for this, Tokyo is doomed...
... multiple times.
*honks*
So... you've singlehandedly discovered the two and ONLY two methods for long distance human space travel? Sheesh... they should give you that science prize they give out every year... or whatever.
If humans have figured out how to surpass the speed of sound without liquifying themselves, how to travel in space while breathing at the same time, how to send messages invisibly through the air, and how to produce instant burritos, then humans are going to figure out a way around the problems of distance and time. Portable wormholes, warp drives, hyperspace, or something cool. There was a time when it took weeks or months(or more) to cross a continent; now such trips take less than a day. As Flash Gordon as it sounds, such will also one day be true of trips to distant stars. Judging an endeavor's success or failure on a thirty year old experiment is not something one can do out of hand in this day and age.
*honk*
What about that entire "attempt no landings there" thing? .. or am I remembering a movie again.
damn.
*honk*
People's "I want it now!" attitude is disturbing. But why assume that's what drugs and technology will be used for.
Because... that's what they will be used for. Humans will remain humans. Or do you think there's been a dramatic change in thinking since the last time something was invented and abused?
Just consider this a premptive rant against abusers.
*honk*
This is but the first step on the way to making giant robot anime a reality.
I wonder if I can mod this thing into a gundam... or better yet a megadeus.
*honk*
Adversity builds character. No matter what you do, there are still going to be people significantly better suited to doing certain things than you are.
But let's suppose that some drug is created that improves you significantly across the board. You grow up performing just as well as the other kids, all taking the drug and all conquering math, music, and language with ease. You've reached adulthood without any physical, mental, or, lucky you, emotional inequalities, inadequacies, or setbacks-- what happens when you run into something that challenges your superman status? Your language boosted mind discovers some ancient atlantian, and can't grok it right away. Or your tripped out scientific thinking center can't quite figure out why that one gene doesn't seem to be doing what it should. Or god forbid someone close to you gets sick, and can't be cured? How do you deal?
Humans grow through adversity. It is how we learn academically and improve emotionally. Muscles unused atrophy, and knowledge unused is forgotten. There seems a troubling trend(or perhaps tradation) of taking damaging short cuts around facing difficulty. For it we either stop growing at that difficulty and become dependent on the short cut to go through the motions of living, or we become dependent on the short cut and try to go further, only to be stymied by that which we skipped over.
Don't make the relatively simple too easy. You'll only pay for it later.
*honk*
So I was reading this chimera twins story...
What? You want me to give away the ending?
*honk*
the joke in the parent post is funny.
I'm going to go sit in a corner and weep, now.
*honk*
Actually, I haven't. Are you talking about short or long series? Both are released, of course, as serials, and the long ones were and are designed to be bought as such. No one really had it in mind that someone would want to buy twenty years of work at once.
But what prices are you seeing, specifically?(rather than continuing to talk through my hat)
*honk*
Well, another anime anyway.
*honk*
And... elves and dwarves usually run around with text bubbles over their heads?
*honk*
Generous of you. You make it sound as if a mortgage is required to purchase entertainment.
It is the right of the vendor to set his prices, and for non-necessities, such as entertainment, he has the right to set them as low or high as he wants. He sets the price too high, he starves. Simple economics. No one is entitled to someone else's entertainment-- some people are good at making it, and the rest of us have become accustomed to having it.
It is the artist's prerogative to be a greedy bastard if he wants, and no matter how greedy he may get, it doesn't make right the idea of a bit of piracy here and there while a better deal "gets sorted out". But I don't see many greedy bastards... they don't survive long.
*honk*
You automatically get a year to think it over. A lot of the decision depends on how long you usual keep a computer/plan on keeping this one. I have a powerbook(am actively typing on it right now), with Applecare, and have been really happy that I've got Applecare. I tend to be rough/clumsy/unlucky with my stuff occasionally... and laptops don't jive with any of those. I broke the screen once by dropping it(long drop for a laptop), and had to pay for it(the rest of the thing was fine). All my other repairs though have been covered(broken backlight, weird harddrive problem, one or two problems with the DVD drive). That stuff got fixed, and both quickly and not out of my wallet. It's paid for itself several times over for me, and by the time it runs out early next year, I'll have gotten a new laptop(with another Applecare warranty).
*honk*
Chances are aliens will be made of it-- matter, that is. There's more matter near stars, especially more tightly packed matter as is likely to make up or provide nutrition or building materials for them.
*honk*
... was concerned with taking action and being an advocate against injustice. The poster percieves this issue to be an injustice and believes it should be spoken out against. It is a good quote to use for such a purpose... regardless of which side I may or may not be on on the issue.
Let not the quote wither in perpetual disuse. No one is getting killed in this issue, Use of this quote neither kills anyone nor cheapens the tragedy of its original subjects.
*honk*
John Travolta ...
Everybody else that got near Battlefield Earth
Kevin Costner
The cast of Town and Country
Gah... can't think of any other bombs or perpetual stinkers right now...
*honk*
Keys are a fairly common thing to lose... but I lose everything else too. If I got one of these it would just mean that I'd have to have a tag for the base station.
Maybe I should just forgo material possessions so I can get all my stuff back. It would be easier... and cheaper.
*bork*
Introducing WozCrutch, a product with some good possible implementations, but that will be used more often for the bad. Let it watch your kids, pets, anyone or anything you care about, so you can forget to. They don't move as fast as you think they do anyway.
*honk*
As a novice language geek, I find that all very cool. Thanks for clearing up the "Norse" thing too. :)
*goes on another language binge at Wikipedia*
*honk*