Oh come on! If the scientific establishment come to the conclusion that Pluto is actually too small to be a planet, and therefore re-classify it as a Dwarf Planet, what the Satan's Trousers does Illinois think it's doing stating otherwise?
Also, does that mean that the answer to the question "is Pluto a Planet or a Dwarf Planet" different in Illinois than anywhere else, where people have a fu&%ing clue!
Also, haven't they got anything better to do? I mean, who benefits from it? Does the President of Illinois have a warehouse full of "Pluto Planet" t-shirt, mugs, and mouse mats or something?
Maybe we could all throw in some classic lines to allow a 'catch-all' email to be constructed. I'll start the ball rolling with a classic opening gambit:-
Over the 'n' years I've been at this company I've come to think of each and every one of you as 'just a bunch of people I work with'...
Wouldn't it be kind of meaningless on Mars? I mean, Mars already has very little atmosphere, so collecting solar from the surface would be be almost as efficient as in space, and then you don't get the major energy loss during space/ground transmission. Not to mention, Mars has no population and no oceans, so there's a hell of a lot of space to put up solar collection facilities.
All true, but that means you have to land and build, but with this setup you establish the solar collectors in orbit (and remember there's no 'dark' time up there) and when you land you 'just' have to spread out the collector sheet and plug in!
I'd be a strong advocate for putting 'infrastructure' in orbit before landing anyway. Let's have a set of GPS and comms satalites in orbit too. Let's have a decent sized space station (ISS-2 - or something designed from what we learnt from ISS anyway) to use as a staging point, etc. An 'orbit' based power supply just seems like the logical next step! Something goes wrong then we have one less gravity well to travel through to get to it from Earth!
I use IE6 [*ducks*]. I've seen (and used) IE7 and I totally hate it! Why the interface change when all we wanted was for it to be more (or better yet "completely"!) standards compliant! I guess I'd get used to it eventually but why the hell should I bother. If I'd spent the time to work out what all the new buttons do, where all the stuff I want to do is now hidden(!) I'd now be having to do the same again with IE8! Can't Microsloth just leave the interface alone and fixs the problems (see also the new Windows OS!) and/or give me an "IE6" skin for IE7, then I'd be happy(ish)!
My plan is to move to something non-MS if/when I have to move, but right now IE6 works just fine (most of the time). Ditto for the OS unless I hear some VERY good things about the next Microslump OS (including the removal of the DRM-hobbling!).
The Reaction Engines guys are practical engineers with a wealth of experience, far from the "bumbling Brits" some other comments suggest.
Frankly, it's a disgrace how bad us bumbling Brits have been at inventing shit over the years! I don't know why we keep bothering to get up in the morning!
Sheeez! Plus the guy handing out smellies for tips presumably! Who'd have though the US military would be so picky! Can't a soldier take a leak against a wall anymore?
It occurs to me that if we can get something like this working for Earth then we'll have a useful product for packaging up and taking with us to Mars - stick one of these suckers in orbit and roll out a collection mat when you land... 4) Power!
... isn't there the very practical issue that a lot of airports aren't equipped to handle the 380's bulk?
Enough Already!
Please Please Please will you people stop saying an A380 is too large and/or heavy to land at most airports! It isn't! OK!
I'm not even going to post the links to prove it as there are dozens of others doing the same.
OK?
So... to recap. The A380 is able, by design, to land at any airport a 747/787 can land at.
... let's move on now shall we and consider other issues surrounding this topic...
... I stopped buying long before the internet made it possible to download. I shared music with friends on casette. Hey, that is a good casette, can you make me a copy? How did you get it?
Well, I got copies from friends and using my dual-cassette player copied the different numbers so I had my own music, minus the crap.
So your defence is that you always used to steal stuff in the old days, and you don't see why can't you steal stuff now?
Just because the value put on a product by the owner is higher than the 'worth' you assign to it doesn't make it "OK" to just take it without paying! Sheeez! What's wrong with you people!
How are artists supposed to make a living, or should their artistry always be a hobby slaved to a 9-5 day job?
Interestingly, not in France it wouldn't, as anything 'Nazi' is banned in France under French law... indeed they could, using popular jargon, be referred to as Nazi nazis.
In the UK we have cameras that face towards you, taking a picture of the driver that will be used as evidence if you say "I wasn't driving".
There may be some but most take a picture of the rear number plate - but they don't need to know who was driving as they just send the ticket to the registered owner and it is up to them to pass the buck and inform on their family/friends if it wasn't them driving.
If you murdered someone you could legally refuse to testify against yourself, but if your car is seen speeding you're in deep doodoo and have no such luxury as you are guilty unless you can prove otherwise!
Don't blame me 'cos I didn't vote for these jokers!
Actually natural selection has given us the ability to control our astrological destiny.
Do I detect uncertainty in Uranus?
Libra: You will find yourself undecided as to whether to die in the initial fireball or in the tsunami deluge that follows.
Taurus: That unhappy time at home will come to an abrupt end towards the end of the month.
Capricorn: That tall dark handsome stranger will turn out to just be a handsome stranger in a very large shadow. Briefly.
Virgo: You can look forward to not having to look forward ever again.
Sagitarius: You may be promised promotion at work during the next quarter. Don't hold your breath. Or do - it won't actually matter.
Re:Movies which missed the very point of their sou
on
New Asimov Movies Coming
·
· Score: 4, Funny
I remember hearing a (possibly apocryphal?) story of Terry Pratchett having a meeting with Hollywood film producers to chat about possibly making a film of his book Mort.
Apparently the producers said something like that it was a great book, with a brilliant story, yada yada yada, but could he tone down the DEATH angle a bit?
Two guys adrift in a lifeboat when they find a bottle with a stopper in it (why does this sort of thing always happen in jokes eh?). A n y w a y... they open it and sure - it's a Genie, but for some reason with only one wish - effects of the credit crunch perhaps. Right, so geezer 1 has a think and says, smart as you like. "Make the ocean into a Beer Ocean!"
KAZAM! (hope that didn't make anyone jump?)
Two guys adrift in a lifeboat on a Beer Ocean and the second fella says :
A gullable friend of mine moved to California many years ago and married one of the locals. They were driving out of silicon valley and there she saw hundreds (?) of windmills, the normal ones and a bunch of the interesting 'egg whisk' (Joe 90?) ones and asked what they were. Her (now) husband, quick as a flash - Oh they're for when it gets really smoggy - they turn them on and suck all the bad air out of silicon valley!
Still makes me laugh!
FWIW, I think they're great - Kinetic Art... but best of all, what if they get sufficiently cheap (quiet, efficient) that every house can have one. Put one on the top of blocks of flats/apartments. Throw in some solar panels (my brother has solar thermal water heating in England and it works a treat!).
Everyone generating a 'bit' of power would be an interesting way to go.
Me neither, but what they are saying seems rather counter-intuitive because the (at least current!) understanding is that evolution is a mechanism based around generations of organisms, so to claim they've found evolution in a single organism - a single cell even - surely must be, simply put, wrong. It might well be something really exciting, for sure, but evolution it isn't!
From the Princeton Article:
What they are saying is that evolution is not entirely random, as Darwin believed. WA WA OOOPS! Not only is Evolution not entirely random, but Darwin didn't believe it was! - and you're waving their (apparently quite impressive!) credentials at me?
You know what, if it turns out they're right I'll be as happy about the advance of knowledge as the next guy, but whatever it is they think they've discovered, the articles I've looked through certainly don't suggest it might be some extension to evolution.
mutations were thought to be random, but now there's (supposedly) evidence that there's some kind of rudimentary optimization going on at the mutation level.
Hmmmm. You see when I read the linked article and it said:- They discovered that the proteins were correcting any imbalance imposed on them through artificial mutations, constantly restoring the chain to working order.
I interpreted that as we push the spinning top and it corrects itself to spin smoothly. How is that evolution? Didn't they just say that it corrected artificial mutations? So a particular strand of life has some sort of auto-correction built in - yep, that doesn't sound unreasonable, but how does something correcting mutations lead to, er, more sustainable mutations?
... and then TFlA says:- A mathematical analysis revealed that these proteins seem to make these minute corrections all the time, steering organisms toward evolutionary changes that make the creature fitter.
Sorry... steers the organisms toward evolutionary changes that make the creature fitter? How the hell does an organism know what is going to be fitter?
[sniff sniff] what's that odd smell? Is it cattle of some sort?
Re:Not coloured impressed just yet
on
The Walking House
·
· Score: 1
And when you decide to relocate the rooms travel together in a small herd.
Love the 'herd' concept... perhaps you'd only have 'personal' rooms and the 'facility' rooms would be grazing at or near the nesting sites and you just round up a suitable set of extra rooms when your personal rooms arrive - I'll have a family bathroom and an en-suite + a guest room as we have guests... throw in a home cinema for Saturday night...
Re:these fast car challenges are kinda dumb
on
1000-mph Car Planned
·
· Score: 1
But when we're talking about what's essentially a jet aircraft using massive aerodynamic engineering to keep it wedded to the ground with fancy tires designed not to explode under the stress, it just seems ridiculous.
I know! It's just crazy isn't it! Where's the speed record attempt where they're not allowed to look into aerodynamics and tyres and stuff, that's what I'd like to know! Sheeez!
But car is the parent classification for a number of offshoots, including ones driven by their wheels, as in the automobiles we see on the roads, but also cable cars, train wagons (commonly called 'cars' by some), wind-powered cars, and of course jet and rocket powered cars, many of which have their own records (eg WindJet for wind powered vehicles). Interestingly, the 'driven wheel' cars speed record (itself split into sub-groups by engine type - petrol/diesel/steam! - and engine size for the Combustion Engine speed records) is higher than the wind ones, and the highest car speed records of them all are the jet and rocket ones... hey... that'd make them the fastest cars of all eh!
Slashdot Mirror
My penis IS a mile long, you insensit-
......Sorry, got a bit excited and blacked out there for a while ......
-ive clod!
Also, does that mean that the answer to the question "is Pluto a Planet or a Dwarf Planet" different in Illinois than anywhere else, where people have a fu&%ing clue!
Also, haven't they got anything better to do? I mean, who benefits from it? Does the President of Illinois have a warehouse full of "Pluto Planet" t-shirt, mugs, and mouse mats or something?
I suspect that in Illinois, no one can hear you scream!
Hey - that'd be awesome on a T-shirt!
Over the 'n' years I've been at this company I've come to think of each and every one of you as 'just a bunch of people I work with' ...
Her baby burst? Now that's really gotta ruin your day!
All true, but that means you have to land and build, but with this setup you establish the solar collectors in orbit (and remember there's no 'dark' time up there) and when you land you 'just' have to spread out the collector sheet and plug in!
I'd be a strong advocate for putting 'infrastructure' in orbit before landing anyway. Let's have a set of GPS and comms satalites in orbit too. Let's have a decent sized space station (ISS-2 - or something designed from what we learnt from ISS anyway) to use as a staging point, etc. An 'orbit' based power supply just seems like the logical next step! Something goes wrong then we have one less gravity well to travel through to get to it from Earth!
My plan is to move to something non-MS if/when I have to move, but right now IE6 works just fine (most of the time). Ditto for the OS unless I hear some VERY good things about the next Microslump OS (including the removal of the DRM-hobbling!).
What Time Is It?
It's Mac Time!
Frankly, it's a disgrace how bad us bumbling Brits have been at inventing shit over the years! I don't know why we keep bothering to get up in the morning!
Sheeez! Plus the guy handing out smellies for tips presumably! Who'd have though the US military would be so picky! Can't a soldier take a leak against a wall anymore?
It occurs to me that if we can get something like this working for Earth then we'll have a useful product for packaging up and taking with us to Mars - stick one of these suckers in orbit and roll out a collection mat when you land ... 4) Power!
Enough Already!
Please Please Please will you people stop saying an A380 is too large and/or heavy to land at most airports! It isn't! OK! I'm not even going to post the links to prove it as there are dozens of others doing the same.
OK?
So ... to recap. The A380 is able, by design, to land at any airport a 747/787 can land at.
I'll get my coat ...
So your defence is that you always used to steal stuff in the old days, and you don't see why can't you steal stuff now?
Just because the value put on a product by the owner is higher than the 'worth' you assign to it doesn't make it "OK" to just take it without paying! Sheeez! What's wrong with you people!
How are artists supposed to make a living, or should their artistry always be a hobby slaved to a 9-5 day job?
Interestingly, not in France it wouldn't, as anything 'Nazi' is banned in France under French law ... indeed they could, using popular jargon, be referred to as Nazi nazis.
Do I win a t-shirt?
There may be some but most take a picture of the rear number plate - but they don't need to know who was driving as they just send the ticket to the registered owner and it is up to them to pass the buck and inform on their family/friends if it wasn't them driving.
If you murdered someone you could legally refuse to testify against yourself, but if your car is seen speeding you're in deep doodoo and have no such luxury as you are guilty unless you can prove otherwise!
Don't blame me 'cos I didn't vote for these jokers!
Do I detect uncertainty in Uranus?
Libra: You will find yourself undecided as to whether to die in the initial fireball or in the tsunami deluge that follows.
Taurus: That unhappy time at home will come to an abrupt end towards the end of the month.
Capricorn: That tall dark handsome stranger will turn out to just be a handsome stranger in a very large shadow. Briefly.
Virgo: You can look forward to not having to look forward ever again.
Sagitarius: You may be promised promotion at work during the next quarter. Don't hold your breath. Or do - it won't actually matter.
Apparently the producers said something like that it was a great book, with a brilliant story, yada yada yada, but could he tone down the DEATH angle a bit?
Two guys adrift in a lifeboat when they find a bottle with a stopper in it (why does this sort of thing always happen in jokes eh?). A n y w a y ... they open it and sure - it's a Genie, but for some reason with only one wish - effects of the credit crunch perhaps. Right, so geezer 1 has a think and says, smart as you like. "Make the ocean into a Beer Ocean!"
KAZAM! (hope that didn't make anyone jump?)
Two guys adrift in a lifeboat on a Beer Ocean and the second fella says :
Great. Now we've gotta piss in the boat!
Still makes me laugh!
FWIW, I think they're great - Kinetic Art ... but best of all, what if they get sufficiently cheap (quiet, efficient) that every house can have one. Put one on the top of blocks of flats/apartments. Throw in some solar panels (my brother has solar thermal water heating in England and it works a treat!).
Everyone generating a 'bit' of power would be an interesting way to go.
Me neither, but what they are saying seems rather counter-intuitive because the (at least current!) understanding is that evolution is a mechanism based around generations of organisms, so to claim they've found evolution in a single organism - a single cell even - surely must be, simply put, wrong. It might well be something really exciting, for sure, but evolution it isn't!
From the Princeton Article: What they are saying is that evolution is not entirely random, as Darwin believed.
WA WA OOOPS! Not only is Evolution not entirely random, but Darwin didn't believe it was! - and you're waving their (apparently quite impressive!) credentials at me?
You know what, if it turns out they're right I'll be as happy about the advance of knowledge as the next guy, but whatever it is they think they've discovered, the articles I've looked through certainly don't suggest it might be some extension to evolution.
Hmmmm. You see when I read the linked article and it said:-
They discovered that the proteins were correcting any imbalance imposed on them through artificial mutations, constantly restoring the chain to working order.
I interpreted that as we push the spinning top and it corrects itself to spin smoothly. How is that evolution? Didn't they just say that it corrected artificial mutations? So a particular strand of life has some sort of auto-correction built in - yep, that doesn't sound unreasonable, but how does something correcting mutations lead to, er, more sustainable mutations?
A mathematical analysis revealed that these proteins seem to make these minute corrections all the time, steering organisms toward evolutionary changes that make the creature fitter.
Sorry ... steers the organisms toward evolutionary changes that make the creature fitter? How the hell does an organism know what is going to be fitter?
[sniff sniff] what's that odd smell? Is it cattle of some sort?
Love the 'herd' concept ... perhaps you'd only have 'personal' rooms and the 'facility' rooms would be grazing at or near the nesting sites and you just round up a suitable set of extra rooms when your personal rooms arrive - I'll have a family bathroom and an en-suite + a guest room as we have guests ... throw in a home cinema for Saturday night ...
er ... Profit?
I know! It's just crazy isn't it! Where's the speed record attempt where they're not allowed to look into aerodynamics and tyres and stuff, that's what I'd like to know! Sheeez!
But car is the parent classification for a number of offshoots, including ones driven by their wheels, as in the automobiles we see on the roads, but also cable cars, train wagons (commonly called 'cars' by some), wind-powered cars, and of course jet and rocket powered cars, many of which have their own records (eg WindJet for wind powered vehicles). Interestingly, the 'driven wheel' cars speed record (itself split into sub-groups by engine type - petrol/diesel/steam! - and engine size for the Combustion Engine speed records) is higher than the wind ones, and the highest car speed records of them all are the jet and rocket ones ... hey ... that'd make them the fastest cars of all eh!