On any such conquest, genetic mixing occurs. The strong plunder the weak, and sadly this involves raping their women. Considering natives are descended from Asia, it's not so far of a stretch.
However, if we're seeing no genetic markers, the likelihood of this occurring is very low. At best you might have a passing tradeship. Even then there would be some sort of goods as evidence to prove it, and we haven't seen them.
Yes, the Chinese had a great Navy before Columbus. But there is, as of yet, no evidence they traveled to the Americas.
The funny thing is that they're never actually called "Ewoks" in the movie. That name didn't show up until the action figurines came out. (Though in all fairness, they likely came out before the movie did)
America has been doing this to citizens of every single country except Canada for many years now. Even up here in Canada we figure it's only a matter of time.
You'll find the concept of the ansible presented in Ender's Game (And according to Wikipedia, Ursula K. Le Guin's "Rocannon's World" to be the reason there's such a nerd woody for superluminal communication.
I doubt it. The Canadian Dollar is now very close to 95 cents US. Some analysts suggest parity by the end of 2008, or even this year. They only way they'd shrink what they'd have to pay is by paying us in US dollars.
Congrats on pissing away your economy!
Meanwhile, I actually *live* in Vancouver... time to brush up my resume...;)
I'm actually surprised they're that concerned about getting out again. Literally, there's nowhere else to go. We already have 2 years of survey data from the non-cratered surface.
This mission will end in Victoria crater, regardless of how long the rover lasts. The only reason to leave is to test the engineering capabilities of an aging rover to climb back out again.
Additionally there's a trap in a assuming "Nothing Existed" as Step 1, previous to Step 2.
Our understanding of space-time suggest that not only space came into existence at the big bang, but also time itself. Which is why it doesn't necessarily make sense to talk about "before" the Big Bang; if time only exists inside the universe, it's a meaningless concept.
Unfortunately we live in a middle world where relativity and quantum physics aren't part of our daily experience, so this makes about as much sense as Schrodinger's cat does to the layperson.
We already live in a universe where, in empty space, particle antiparticle pairs come into existence out of nothing, attract, collide, explode and generate energy (as a photon) that travels backward in time to provide the energy for the original pair to come out of nothing (as long as everything is done within a unit of Planck time so the universe can get away with this kind of "cheating"). This happens all the time, everywhere, in empty space, and yet we can't conceive of the universe itself coming out of nothing?
Yes, I have taken just enough quantum physics and cosmology to screw me up for the rest of my life.
Redundancy is not backup. If you had a fire, or a hacker deface and delete your website, no RAID is going to fix that.
The tape/HD size ratio is getting so ridiculous that at work we're seriously considering using Hard Drives as removable tape-like media for backup. Any other solution for backing up terabytes of data is too expensive.
My old astronomy prof told us that a year was approximately pi * 10^7.. It's really 3.16* 10^7.
This would make for 316kbps video. I would guarantee you this is nowhere near DVD quality.
The original 10 million seconds is more like 4 months, and yes, this would be close to DVD quality.
Why am I posting this? Because I built myself a 0.9TB array just last year for my MythTV backend. And after 6 months it isn't enough space, even with aggressive deleting and transcoding.
1TB will feel like a very small number even 5 years from now.
I may be in the minority in this thread, but I loved San Andreas' countryside because while it may have been a hindrance to gameplay, there was something else it added that a compressed city map couldn't: Mood.
The first thing I do when ever I've played any GTA game is to hop on a motorcycle and just drive for a few hours, listening to the radio stations. I'm guessing that not too many people here have ever driven on the California coast, but much like the maps of San Fran and Los Angeles, they absolutely nailed it. Driving through that countryside while tedious to some was beautiful to me. Just don't get out of your vehicle.:)
I did wish they fleshed out these areas and made them more than just visually appealing. Maybe Oblivion will give them a good swift kick in the ass on this one.
The E911 issue is an absolute disgrace. Lives are at stake, and everyone, especially landline telcos, should be bending over backwards to ensure reliable 911 coverage for everyone, including other VoIP carriers. To use the failure of E911 as a soft marketing ploy against VoIP service is disgusting.
I'm sure landline 911 was an enormous hurdle as well. Find a way to get over it. Yes, I'll pay more to make it happen.
Unfortunately it would probably take something the size of a modern Titan rocket to get Scotty's ashes the rocket launch they deserve: Escape velocity from the Sun. Maybe with enough extra velocity to pass the two Voyagers by the 23rd century.
I don't think anyone was willing to put up the ~$200 million or so for the launch.;)
Vancouver, Canada here. Shaw cable has four plans for cable internet.
There's a "Lite" version that's a bit better than dialup. 256Kbps SL/128Kbps UL with a 10GB/mo limit A "High Speed" version, for $40/mo. 5Mbps DL/0.5Mbps upload, with a 60GB/mo limit An "Extreme" version, for $50/mo. 10Mbps DL/1Mbps upload, with a 100GB/mo limit And a new "Nitro" version, for $100/mo. 25Mbps DL/1MBps upload, with a 150GB/mo limit
All of these limits are "soft" limits. If you push them too hard, they email you a nasty message and start monitoring your usage. I'm pretty sure I've gone over these once or thrice, but have yet to receive an email about it, though my friends have.
I've had the High Speed version for... yikes, 9 years now (was originally 3Mbps DL with a 1GB limit that was never enforced). It's been pretty good for me, though in some neighbourhoods people saw slowdowns and outages from time to time.
Shaw is a decent company that isn't run by jerks. And no I don't work for them. (And their digital phone service is too expensive!)
I get where you're coming from, and I'd have to agree that many episodes of BSG feel contentless. But it's the best show since Blade Runner to question what it is to be human.
BSG 3x01/02 was probably the best ep, though 1x06 has an extreme Blade Runner feel to it.
Slashdot Mirror
On any such conquest, genetic mixing occurs. The strong plunder the weak, and sadly this involves raping their women. Considering natives are descended from Asia, it's not so far of a stretch.
However, if we're seeing no genetic markers, the likelihood of this occurring is very low. At best you might have a passing tradeship. Even then there would be some sort of goods as evidence to prove it, and we haven't seen them.
Yes, the Chinese had a great Navy before Columbus. But there is, as of yet, no evidence they traveled to the Americas.
(For the record, there are two "Ewok Warrior"s credited: Malcolm Dixon and Mike Cotrell... both of whom appeared to have worked on "The Dark Crystal")
If you have to go hunting through the end credits to find the names of the little beasties, that doesn't count.
The funny thing is that they're never actually called "Ewoks" in the movie. That name didn't show up until the action figurines came out. (Though in all fairness, they likely came out before the movie did)
America has been doing this to citizens of every single country except Canada for many years now. Even up here in Canada we figure it's only a matter of time.
I built a 4x320GB RAID5 array last November for my MythTV Backend.
It has confirmed my belief that all new large harddrives will fill up in 4 months.
Sad part is 900GB seems kinda small by today's standards.
I found Zero Punctuation's review to be much funnier...
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/1394-Zero-Punctuation-BioShock
But.. but... but! Ender's Game! And the ansible!
You'll find the concept of the ansible presented in Ender's Game (And according to Wikipedia, Ursula K. Le Guin's "Rocannon's World" to be the reason there's such a nerd woody for superluminal communication.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansible
All this talk about libertarian nerds and no mention of BioShock? The game seems like a dystopian libertarian future to me...
Only one thought to this: Democrats = Munchkins.
I wonder which presidential candidate represents the Lollypop Guild?
The Daily Show starts a 2 week break this week.
Is anyone noticing a trend where resignations seem to occur while The Daily Show is off on break?
What, no ISA slots?
Worthless!
I doubt it. The Canadian Dollar is now very close to 95 cents US. Some analysts suggest parity by the end of 2008, or even this year. They only way they'd shrink what they'd have to pay is by paying us in US dollars.
;)
Congrats on pissing away your economy!
Meanwhile, I actually *live* in Vancouver... time to brush up my resume...
I'm actually surprised they're that concerned about getting out again. Literally, there's nowhere else to go. We already have 2 years of survey data from the non-cratered surface.
This mission will end in Victoria crater, regardless of how long the rover lasts. The only reason to leave is to test the engineering capabilities of an aging rover to climb back out again.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/video/movie s/opportunity/VictoriaDigitalStory.mov
JPL produced Video of Project Manager John Callas discussing the entry.
Additionally there's a trap in a assuming "Nothing Existed" as Step 1, previous to Step 2.
Our understanding of space-time suggest that not only space came into existence at the big bang, but also time itself. Which is why it doesn't necessarily make sense to talk about "before" the Big Bang; if time only exists inside the universe, it's a meaningless concept.
Unfortunately we live in a middle world where relativity and quantum physics aren't part of our daily experience, so this makes about as much sense as Schrodinger's cat does to the layperson.
We already live in a universe where, in empty space, particle antiparticle pairs come into existence out of nothing, attract, collide, explode and generate energy (as a photon) that travels backward in time to provide the energy for the original pair to come out of nothing (as long as everything is done within a unit of Planck time so the universe can get away with this kind of "cheating"). This happens all the time, everywhere, in empty space, and yet we can't conceive of the universe itself coming out of nothing?
Yes, I have taken just enough quantum physics and cosmology to screw me up for the rest of my life.
Redundancy is not backup. If you had a fire, or a hacker deface and delete your website, no RAID is going to fix that.
The tape/HD size ratio is getting so ridiculous that at work we're seriously considering using Hard Drives as removable tape-like media for backup. Any other solution for backing up terabytes of data is too expensive.
My old astronomy prof told us that a year was approximately pi * 10^7.. It's really 3.16* 10^7.
This would make for 316kbps video. I would guarantee you this is nowhere near DVD quality.
The original 10 million seconds is more like 4 months, and yes, this would be close to DVD quality.
Why am I posting this? Because I built myself a 0.9TB array just last year for my MythTV backend. And after 6 months it isn't enough space, even with aggressive deleting and transcoding.
1TB will feel like a very small number even 5 years from now.
I may be in the minority in this thread, but I loved San Andreas' countryside because while it may have been a hindrance to gameplay, there was something else it added that a compressed city map couldn't: Mood.
:)
The first thing I do when ever I've played any GTA game is to hop on a motorcycle and just drive for a few hours, listening to the radio stations. I'm guessing that not too many people here have ever driven on the California coast, but much like the maps of San Fran and Los Angeles, they absolutely nailed it. Driving through that countryside while tedious to some was beautiful to me. Just don't get out of your vehicle.
I did wish they fleshed out these areas and made them more than just visually appealing. Maybe Oblivion will give them a good swift kick in the ass on this one.
And people say Digg is much worse that Slashdot...
The E911 issue is an absolute disgrace. Lives are at stake, and everyone, especially landline telcos, should be bending over backwards to ensure reliable 911 coverage for everyone, including other VoIP carriers. To use the failure of E911 as a soft marketing ploy against VoIP service is disgusting.
I'm sure landline 911 was an enormous hurdle as well. Find a way to get over it. Yes, I'll pay more to make it happen.
Unfortunately it would probably take something the size of a modern Titan rocket to get Scotty's ashes the rocket launch they deserve: Escape velocity from the Sun. Maybe with enough extra velocity to pass the two Voyagers by the 23rd century.
;)
I don't think anyone was willing to put up the ~$200 million or so for the launch.
Maybe we'll legally be able to get Pandora now?
(Pandora has heavy non-US disclaimers, but appears to work just fine north of the border.)
Vancouver, Canada here. Shaw cable has four plans for cable internet.
There's a "Lite" version that's a bit better than dialup. 256Kbps SL/128Kbps UL with a 10GB/mo limit
A "High Speed" version, for $40/mo. 5Mbps DL/0.5Mbps upload, with a 60GB/mo limit
An "Extreme" version, for $50/mo. 10Mbps DL/1Mbps upload, with a 100GB/mo limit
And a new "Nitro" version, for $100/mo. 25Mbps DL/1MBps upload, with a 150GB/mo limit
All of these limits are "soft" limits. If you push them too hard, they email you a nasty message and start monitoring your usage. I'm pretty sure I've gone over these once or thrice, but have yet to receive an email about it, though my friends have.
I've had the High Speed version for... yikes, 9 years now (was originally 3Mbps DL with a 1GB limit that was never enforced). It's been pretty good for me, though in some neighbourhoods people saw slowdowns and outages from time to time.
Shaw is a decent company that isn't run by jerks. And no I don't work for them. (And their digital phone service is too expensive!)
I get where you're coming from, and I'd have to agree that many episodes of BSG feel contentless. But it's the best show since Blade Runner to question what it is to be human.
BSG 3x01/02 was probably the best ep, though 1x06 has an extreme Blade Runner feel to it.
(now I've got to go and find me some Blake's 7)