We have already discussed this. The cost of a trip to space is so high that the average guy can't afford to win it and (as has happened before) would have to decline it, otherwise the taxes on the "prize" would ruin you.
Nothing like spending well over a hundred bucks for something that can be done with a free app on my existing Android device (that I paid a lot less for). Pick up a cheap pre-paid Android cell phone, and don't buy the optional air-time card. Load a free app (by wifi). If you can resist the urge to do anything else with your Android device then you'll have about the same thing, except that it will have a better color display that can even show the ISS path in the sky and will cost less.
Are you for real? I have to make judgements about people all of the time, pretty much everyone not living as a hermit does. I don't have the luxury of dragging them to a courthouse and putting them in front of a jury when I need to make those judgements. If we can't base those judgements by what kind of a person have they been, what do you suggest? Perhaps some of the old fallbacks, like the color of their skin or how much they profess to love god?
When Google says "Not Where We Want to Be" , what they are saying is that it is time to start discriminating against white males and hire other less qualified candidates because some groups are getting uppidy. We never hear similar claims of needing "more diversity" from the NBA or the National Felons League, but when we find an area where white males excel by working hard, it is time to put a stop to it.
Looks like some special interests are trying to strike another blow against people actually owning the movies that they buy. Lets list some other benefits: You don't get to watch the disc again, or lend it to a friend. And if you do watch it again on-line, you can completely ignore any costs involved (because that's what the research did). You're not distracted by the extra content included on DVDs. The lower quality streaming video is perfectly fine for you. You're completely freed from the "right of first sale' and will never have to concern yourself with selling or trading old DVDs that you have. And those nice people at your ISP who have started capping your service and who will charge outrageous overages if you happen to exceed your monthly quota will gladly forgive your overage if you explain how you were downloading or streaming for the sake of the planet (wouldn't you, AT&T?)
I agree, the Kindle fire is an artificially crippled Android tablet anyway, so why not go with a better tablet? If you want just an e-ink based reader to do nothing else but read then some of the old Kindles might be OK. But if your looking for a Kindle Fire replacement then you don't have to look far to find better. I might have suggested the Nexus, but the customer unfriendly lack of a 5 cent memory card slot was a deal breaker for me. I would currently suggest the Hisense Sero 7 Pro 7" Tablet, available currently from Wak-Mart for $115. It has the resolution to be a great reader, a long life battery, And many tablet features that the Amazon offering lacks, including GPS, camera, NFC, and microphone. The only downside that I see is that it is only on Android 2.4, not the latest and greatest. But I think that still beats the Kindle.
You make a very dubious claim, and that you chose to post as an AC further heightens my doubt. You say that this was a "recent road trip". Since that implies you were not buying from a local dealer that you knew could provide regular, just how did you determine that you were getting regular without alcohol? How did you find sellers providing pure gas while on the road away from your home? And if you were seeing such a sharp difference, why would you buy more than one tank full of "pure gas"? I've found that even pumps that do not contain the 10% alcohol warning usually are selling 10% alcohol gas (I've seen this "recently", within the last few months). And gas that "may contain up to 10% ethanol" will occasionally (but rarely) not contain 10% alcohol. Plus you're talking about getting 300 or so miles out of a tank or well over 450, but you're not giving actual MPGs. I can make a big difference in how far I can go after a fill up depending on if I stop filling when the pump first cuts off or if I squeeze in every last drop that I can (and on a road trip you can expect different pumps to cut off at different points). And I doubt that you are running those tanks to empty, making those distances on a "tank of gas" even less precise.
You also didn't state if this road trip was on consistent roads or if some parts were major Interstate highways and other parts were conditions that could be expected to provide poorer mileage such as secondary roads, higher speed limits, major congestion, or sharp up-hill driving.
Plus, lets state the obvious: You're the only person that I have ever seen make such a claim, and there seems to be no rational reason why one would see as much as a 50% improvement on mileage after adulterating gasoline with lower energy ethanol.
So, to put it simply Mr. AC, I believe that you either did very poor measurement to obtain the results that you claim, or you are simply reporting a falsehood.
I have a "new" 2013 Mazda 3. Ethanol is said to have 3% less energy than gas, but I've observed that when I use "may contain up to 10% ethanol" gas that I get a 10% or more drop in mileage($) contrasted to when I drive the extra mileage and pay more for "pure gas". So what that tells me is that I (and the planet) would be better off if the alcohol wasn't in the gas at all and they just sold me 9/10 of a gallon of gas for what they are charging me for gas adulterated with ethanol. I wouldn't have to haul the extra useless alcohol around, I would have more space in my tank for gas, and if we didn't waste food and energy to make and transport ethanol, the world would have more food and just maybe corn prices wouldn't be so high.
In theory 9/10 of a gallon of gas without alcohol added should cost even less than a gallon of the mixed crap, since you would save all the costs of the alcohol. But in reality pure gas is hard to find and end up commanding a premium price.
I'm still fighting with the last set of changes, lots of features that I used to use regularly are either gone or hidden so well that I usually can't find them. The best change they could make is go back to the version that worked and then let us keep it, or at least give us the option to keep it and not keep having changes forced down our throats.
Don't you understand? They got $40,000 on Indiegogo and all they had to do was give an African village 5 old worthless broken computers and a few flash drives. Clearly this is a life lesson for the starving Africans. If they would just take something that has already been done many times before and claim it was new, and send their old trash to someone else, the chumps on Indiegogo might give them $40,000 too. That's over 54 years worth of African wages. If the Africans are too focused on how to get food, somewhat clean water and staying alive to follow this example, then its not my problem. They should learn from this and, now that they have flash drives and those 5 crappy computers, go on Indiegogo and post some scam of their own.
NO! You can order items through Alibaba (not from) and pay through Alibaba. But you can't get what you ordered, something broken or of lower spec will usually be sent. Alibaba, who represents themselves as holding payment in escrow and settling disputes with the sellers because without that the sellers are too dishonest, will always side in any dispute with the seller, even if (as happened to me) the sellers make no counterargument against your dispute. You can't actually expect to buy what is advertised from or through Alibaba and get it. They also will delete bad feedback or even change it to positive feedback. See what people have to say about Alibaba on ResellerRatings.
Sellers on Alibaba know that they can ship just about anything and when you receive it and complain just say If you didn't like my merchandise, send it back" There is an amazing imbalance in the cost of shipping an item from China and in the cost of sending it back to China and the sellers know and exploit this. They know that if the send you a cheaper item than what is specified they will make more money and that at U.S. shipping rates it would usually cost you mote to return it than you paid for the item. Don't deal with Alibaba and the thieves, the name is one of pure irony.
Stargate was released on BluRay with the exact same video as the DVD, an awful two channel audio track, and even fewer subtitles than the DVD. After an up swelling of complaints from the public they did release a better version. But even a few years after that I bought a copy at WalMart and it ended up being the inferior older BluRay version, even though it was freshly sent out stock. I damn well assure you that I'm not going to buy the better version now that I know it exists. This is not the only case of studios doing this.
And in some cases the video is exactly the same (grain per grain) as the DVD, and perhaps even with inferior audio and features. The studios decided to just ship out any crap and we would pay a premium because it was on BluRay. Some of us fell for it once or twice but eventually learned and went back to buying DVDs. Blame downloading services if you want, but I much prefer to own a physical DVD than a DRM crippled download of lower quality with repressive DRM or not even having the download at all, just watching and then having nothing. And I do like the extra features on discs and the ability to watch again or even lend the disc to a friend. There are lots of advantages to physical media, but several disadvantages to BluRay. I expect some studio execs would rather blame downloading for the decline in BluRay sales than take responsibility for decisions they made.
And, yes, I know that DVDs have DRM too, but it tends to be much less of a problem for most users.
When the police refuse to do their job, my life is already at risk. I would much rather deal with the problem at a time of my choosing when I was at least somewhat prepared for it than wait until I had something else the thug wanted and have him take it again when he was prepared and I was not. You might as well be arguing that we should just give all of what we earn and own to these urban terrorists so that they don't hurt us when they take it.
Dead on. The police could do their jobs and get the phone and even take a crook of the streets at the same time. Instead if a location of a stolen phone is reported they just brush it off and tell you that your $500+ item is "easily replaceable" and that you should forget about all of the personal stuff on it. They can't be bothered. I wonder why people respect police less and less every day. I'm surprised that they don't point out that while the police have guns and all that other stuff, and the bad guys likely have guns, in many states the victims don't have guns because the laws prevent it. And prevent you from even having bullet proof vests too!
That is a disingenuous and ignorant argument. There is already a law on the books in New Jersey that once such technology is available it will become mandated in 3 years for all new gun sales. And you think other, even more repressive states, will be far behind?
I haven't worn a watch for years. Not because of cell phones, but because the straps or where the strap mounts kept breaking on me.(a problem that I don;'t want to have with a gun when a Trayvon Martin type decides he doesn't like my looks.) But when I did wear one, like most right handed people, I wore it on my left wrist. This gun interlock supposedly has a 10 inch range. Why is no one commenting on that? I don't want a bunch of right handed people going around trying to aim guns and shooting with their left hands, and I doubt that many will want to change where they wear the watch (there are good reasons why a right hand person wears the watch on the left hand). I also have noticed that there is a wide range of tastes in watches. but I don't expect that variety of consumer options to be reflected in a device sold to be used as both a watch and a gun interlock. Of course, you don;tr have to buy this crap and wear a junky black plastic or rubber watch today, but if the liberal wackos who live to take away second amendment rights get their way, it will not be long before they get laws passed mandating this technology for anyone who wants to be able to protect themselves.
I'm not sure where you get the idea that angels and demons have no free will. Back in the child molesting cult that I grew up in, I was taught that they have free will. Specifically (and I have no idea where the cult got this information, since the bible starts at the creation of earth and man and it doesn't seem to cover the creation of angels, but I was taught that religion had no place for logically questioning what you were taught) the cult told me that a bunch of angels were created and they wondered where they came from. Someone said "I created you, worship me". The angels looked and said "hey, you look just like us, what do you mean that you created us?" but the guy who wanted worshiped said " err..... yea, I look like you because,.... because,..... because I created you in my image! Yea, that's it, I created you in my image" They thought it over. Some figured out this was just silly but other angels bought it, or at least decided not to rock the boat and just in case it was the truth they would play along. There was a big fight between the angels and the group that didn't but the story lost and were cast out. They became the demons. That pretty much tells me that they had free will. Or that the story is all bullshit.
Slashdot Mirror
We have already discussed this. The cost of a trip to space is so high that the average guy can't afford to win it and (as has happened before) would have to decline it, otherwise the taxes on the "prize" would ruin you.
more quality moderation/editing:
SSLT [state, local, tribal and territorial]
So does the T stand for tribal or territorial, and WTF does the second S stand for? Soulskill?
Nothing like spending well over a hundred bucks for something that can be done with a free app on my existing Android device (that I paid a lot less for). Pick up a cheap pre-paid Android cell phone, and don't buy the optional air-time card. Load a free app (by wifi). If you can resist the urge to do anything else with your Android device then you'll have about the same thing, except that it will have a better color display that can even show the ISS path in the sky and will cost less.
"Every team has someone who at the bottom of its bell curve...." . Even teams of moderators and editors, right samzenpus?
Are you for real? I have to make judgements about people all of the time, pretty much everyone not living as a hermit does. I don't have the luxury of dragging them to a courthouse and putting them in front of a jury when I need to make those judgements. If we can't base those judgements by what kind of a person have they been, what do you suggest? Perhaps some of the old fallbacks, like the color of their skin or how much they profess to love god?
I think that we should first start observing the "right to be forgotten" by forgetting about anything these petitioners say.
When Google says "Not Where We Want to Be" , what they are saying is that it is time to start discriminating against white males and hire other less qualified candidates because some groups are getting uppidy. We never hear similar claims of needing "more diversity" from the NBA or the National Felons League, but when we find an area where white males excel by working hard, it is time to put a stop to it.
Looks like some special interests are trying to strike another blow against people actually owning the movies that they buy. Lets list some other benefits: You don't get to watch the disc again, or lend it to a friend. And if you do watch it again on-line, you can completely ignore any costs involved (because that's what the research did). You're not distracted by the extra content included on DVDs. The lower quality streaming video is perfectly fine for you. You're completely freed from the "right of first sale' and will never have to concern yourself with selling or trading old DVDs that you have. And those nice people at your ISP who have started capping your service and who will charge outrageous overages if you happen to exceed your monthly quota will gladly forgive your overage if you explain how you were downloading or streaming for the sake of the planet (wouldn't you, AT&T?)
Opps, my bad. I meant to say 4.2, not 2.4. Thanks for correcting that.
I agree, the Kindle fire is an artificially crippled Android tablet anyway, so why not go with a better tablet? If you want just an e-ink based reader to do nothing else but read then some of the old Kindles might be OK. But if your looking for a Kindle Fire replacement then you don't have to look far to find better. I might have suggested the Nexus, but the customer unfriendly lack of a 5 cent memory card slot was a deal breaker for me. I would currently suggest the Hisense Sero 7 Pro 7" Tablet, available currently from Wak-Mart for $115. It has the resolution to be a great reader, a long life battery, And many tablet features that the Amazon offering lacks, including GPS, camera, NFC, and microphone. The only downside that I see is that it is only on Android 2.4, not the latest and greatest. But I think that still beats the Kindle.
You too, corn farmer
You make a very dubious claim, and that you chose to post as an AC further heightens my doubt. You say that this was a "recent road trip". Since that implies you were not buying from a local dealer that you knew could provide regular, just how did you determine that you were getting regular without alcohol? How did you find sellers providing pure gas while on the road away from your home? And if you were seeing such a sharp difference, why would you buy more than one tank full of "pure gas"? I've found that even pumps that do not contain the 10% alcohol warning usually are selling 10% alcohol gas (I've seen this "recently", within the last few months). And gas that "may contain up to 10% ethanol" will occasionally (but rarely) not contain 10% alcohol. Plus you're talking about getting 300 or so miles out of a tank or well over 450, but you're not giving actual MPGs. I can make a big difference in how far I can go after a fill up depending on if I stop filling when the pump first cuts off or if I squeeze in every last drop that I can (and on a road trip you can expect different pumps to cut off at different points). And I doubt that you are running those tanks to empty, making those distances on a "tank of gas" even less precise.
You also didn't state if this road trip was on consistent roads or if some parts were major Interstate highways and other parts were conditions that could be expected to provide poorer mileage such as secondary roads, higher speed limits, major congestion, or sharp up-hill driving.
Plus, lets state the obvious: You're the only person that I have ever seen make such a claim, and there seems to be no rational reason why one would see as much as a 50% improvement on mileage after adulterating gasoline with lower energy ethanol.
So, to put it simply Mr. AC, I believe that you either did very poor measurement to obtain the results that you claim, or you are simply reporting a falsehood.
I have a "new" 2013 Mazda 3. Ethanol is said to have 3% less energy than gas, but I've observed that when I use "may contain up to 10% ethanol" gas that I get a 10% or more drop in mileage($) contrasted to when I drive the extra mileage and pay more for "pure gas". So what that tells me is that I (and the planet) would be better off if the alcohol wasn't in the gas at all and they just sold me 9/10 of a gallon of gas for what they are charging me for gas adulterated with ethanol. I wouldn't have to haul the extra useless alcohol around, I would have more space in my tank for gas, and if we didn't waste food and energy to make and transport ethanol, the world would have more food and just maybe corn prices wouldn't be so high.
In theory 9/10 of a gallon of gas without alcohol added should cost even less than a gallon of the mixed crap, since you would save all the costs of the alcohol. But in reality pure gas is hard to find and end up commanding a premium price.
I'm still fighting with the last set of changes, lots of features that I used to use regularly are either gone or hidden so well that I usually can't find them. The best change they could make is go back to the version that worked and then let us keep it, or at least give us the option to keep it and not keep having changes forced down our throats.
Don't you understand? They got $40,000 on Indiegogo and all they had to do was give an African village 5 old worthless broken computers and a few flash drives. Clearly this is a life lesson for the starving Africans. If they would just take something that has already been done many times before and claim it was new, and send their old trash to someone else, the chumps on Indiegogo might give them $40,000 too. That's over 54 years worth of African wages. If the Africans are too focused on how to get food, somewhat clean water and staying alive to follow this example, then its not my problem. They should learn from this and, now that they have flash drives and those 5 crappy computers, go on Indiegogo and post some scam of their own.
NO! You can order items through Alibaba (not from) and pay through Alibaba. But you can't get what you ordered, something broken or of lower spec will usually be sent. Alibaba, who represents themselves as holding payment in escrow and settling disputes with the sellers because without that the sellers are too dishonest, will always side in any dispute with the seller, even if (as happened to me) the sellers make no counterargument against your dispute. You can't actually expect to buy what is advertised from or through Alibaba and get it. They also will delete bad feedback or even change it to positive feedback. See what people have to say about Alibaba on ResellerRatings.
Sellers on Alibaba know that they can ship just about anything and when you receive it and complain just say If you didn't like my merchandise, send it back" There is an amazing imbalance in the cost of shipping an item from China and in the cost of sending it back to China and the sellers know and exploit this. They know that if the send you a cheaper item than what is specified they will make more money and that at U.S. shipping rates it would usually cost you mote to return it than you paid for the item. Don't deal with Alibaba and the thieves, the name is one of pure irony.
Do the pretty impossible ones. It is a lot more fun and you will learn a lot more.
Stargate was released on BluRay with the exact same video as the DVD, an awful two channel audio track, and even fewer subtitles than the DVD. After an up swelling of complaints from the public they did release a better version. But even a few years after that I bought a copy at WalMart and it ended up being the inferior older BluRay version, even though it was freshly sent out stock. I damn well assure you that I'm not going to buy the better version now that I know it exists. This is not the only case of studios doing this.
And in some cases the video is exactly the same (grain per grain) as the DVD, and perhaps even with inferior audio and features. The studios decided to just ship out any crap and we would pay a premium because it was on BluRay. Some of us fell for it once or twice but eventually learned and went back to buying DVDs. Blame downloading services if you want, but I much prefer to own a physical DVD than a DRM crippled download of lower quality with repressive DRM or not even having the download at all, just watching and then having nothing. And I do like the extra features on discs and the ability to watch again or even lend the disc to a friend. There are lots of advantages to physical media, but several disadvantages to BluRay. I expect some studio execs would rather blame downloading for the decline in BluRay sales than take responsibility for decisions they made.
And, yes, I know that DVDs have DRM too, but it tends to be much less of a problem for most users.
When the police refuse to do their job, my life is already at risk. I would much rather deal with the problem at a time of my choosing when I was at least somewhat prepared for it than wait until I had something else the thug wanted and have him take it again when he was prepared and I was not. You might as well be arguing that we should just give all of what we earn and own to these urban terrorists so that they don't hurt us when they take it.
Dead on. The police could do their jobs and get the phone and even take a crook of the streets at the same time. Instead if a location of a stolen phone is reported they just brush it off and tell you that your $500+ item is "easily replaceable" and that you should forget about all of the personal stuff on it. They can't be bothered. I wonder why people respect police less and less every day. I'm surprised that they don't point out that while the police have guns and all that other stuff, and the bad guys likely have guns, in many states the victims don't have guns because the laws prevent it. And prevent you from even having bullet proof vests too!
That is a disingenuous and ignorant argument. There is already a law on the books in New Jersey that once such technology is available it will become mandated in 3 years for all new gun sales. And you think other, even more repressive states, will be far behind?
I haven't worn a watch for years. Not because of cell phones, but because the straps or where the strap mounts kept breaking on me.(a problem that I don;'t want to have with a gun when a Trayvon Martin type decides he doesn't like my looks.) But when I did wear one, like most right handed people, I wore it on my left wrist. This gun interlock supposedly has a 10 inch range. Why is no one commenting on that? I don't want a bunch of right handed people going around trying to aim guns and shooting with their left hands, and I doubt that many will want to change where they wear the watch (there are good reasons why a right hand person wears the watch on the left hand). I also have noticed that there is a wide range of tastes in watches. but I don't expect that variety of consumer options to be reflected in a device sold to be used as both a watch and a gun interlock. Of course, you don;tr have to buy this crap and wear a junky black plastic or rubber watch today, but if the liberal wackos who live to take away second amendment rights get their way, it will not be long before they get laws passed mandating this technology for anyone who wants to be able to protect themselves.
And, since it is a 10 inch range from the device when it is working, shoot from the hip.
I'm not sure where you get the idea that angels and demons have no free will. Back in the child molesting cult that I grew up in, I was taught that they have free will. Specifically (and I have no idea where the cult got this information, since the bible starts at the creation of earth and man and it doesn't seem to cover the creation of angels, but I was taught that religion had no place for logically questioning what you were taught) the cult told me that a bunch of angels were created and they wondered where they came from. Someone said "I created you, worship me". The angels looked and said "hey, you look just like us, what do you mean that you created us?" but the guy who wanted worshiped said " err..... yea, I look like you because, .... because, ..... because I created you in my image! Yea, that's it, I created you in my image" They thought it over. Some figured out this was just silly but other angels bought it, or at least decided not to rock the boat and just in case it was the truth they would play along. There was a big fight between the angels and the group that didn't but the story lost and were cast out. They became the demons. That pretty much tells me that they had free will. Or that the story is all bullshit.