Re:Obligatory - short story recap
on
Space Lichens
·
· Score: 1
I recall reading a short about a future government's determination to stop an experiment in artificial life. The experiment was taking place between the orbits of mars and Jupiter. When the decision was made to end it due to perceived danger to life on earth, the selected strategy was to toss the colony into the Sun.
Of course, as the asteroid containing the engineered fungii passed the orbit of earth it managed to escape out of its enclosure in the asteroid -- as spores. These then were pushed back towards earth by the solar wind.
Fun Stuff!
Survival of the fittest -- and I can't believe that is us.
How long till the "B" movie comes out detailing construction of
this aquarium, catching the squid, putting it in and then having
it escape before they close the hatch. It then goes on a rampage
of manhattan, squeezing the life out of every junk bond trader
it can get its tenticles on. I'd rent it!
Congress members spend big $$$ to get elected. Large $$$ interests help make that happen. Big $$$ interests expect payback for their assistance. These are not dumb people -- they put money where they think it will do their busness/organization some good. The Congress member is bound to "dance with them what brung ya".
It would take a MAJOR campaign reform would put government back in the hands of the people (as in by and for).
The creators and producers would be more than willing to make as many seasons as the advertizers will subsidize.,br>
Perhaps the "comercial spaceflight" industry, instead of makding donations, should just make a large and expensive ad buy?
My MythTV MythTV system allows me to skip commercials. Works great. Detects commercials via a blnk frame and scene change strategy. MUCH better than Tivo. When the comercial break starts allI have to do is hit one button on the remote and viola -- starts playing the program again!
So, in you example, would use of the hunting rifle in the apt be considered negligent by measure of the extreem danger to bystanders? By that measure your snubbie in a reasonably public urban area carries just as much hazard to bystanders, correct?
I am curious about the level of weaponry necessary for self defense in your opinion. Is a 44 magnum required/necessary? 18 shot mag? full auto? armor penatrating rounds?
Just wondering where we draw the line on what is acceptable for self defense and what is a manace to society at large, given that many weapons purchased for self defense are stolen and end up in the wrong hands. There is a real downside to having even more guns out in out towns.
There was a time when a vote for the 3rd party also rans made sense. Not this time. I voted for Nader in years past and would welcome the opportunity to do so again. This year, however, the stakes are too high.
Wake up and smell the napalm my friend. Here is a very short list of Bush's accomplishments:
Starting a war under false/erroneous pretense
Ignoring military recomendation to have 400,000 boots on the ground to occupy
Miscalculating (boy it this an understatement) how the occupied Iraqies will react to our invastion
Ignoring calls to have a terrorism on the front burner when he came to office
Making bellicose threats against Osama and not being able to deliver
no bid contracts
Karl Rove
Not being able to complete a coherent thought without a teleprompter
Ignoring global warming
Not fulfilling his commitment to the National Guard
Failing at every business deal he was ever involved with (except Rangers baseball team which was given to him on a silver platter).
Starting a war without planning on paying for it. Our kids will be on the hook for this debacle for decades
In general has been a clueless, previledged jerk.
On the otherhand we have Kerry:
Could have dodged the draft like someone we know but chose to go to Vietnam anyway
Fought to end a war that was useless to our interests -- despite having his honesty and patriotism attacked
Can see more than a black and white version of the world.
Hates the idea of war but voted to give Dubya the club he needed to get inspections started up in Iraq because Saddam was in violation of UN resolutions.
Is smarter than most folks
Gives us a fighting chance to get the rest of the world on our side. Bush has no chance to do this now
All polls have limited value sensing the future. Look at the 2000 election where the poll in Hawaii was tied just before the vote (like it is now) and Gore won by 18 points.
For some reason we have a insatiable thirst for "information" -- in the form of polls. It has been pointed out that the run of the mill poll is only calling land line subscribers. Zogby made an attempt to put in a correction factor for this.
I think its probably closer to "real" information that asking 12 year olds their opinion so I would no classify it total trash. But on the other hand, I kinda think all polls are junk.
If you are right about the US populace not caring about leaders outside our borders (and I suspect that you are -- partially) then its yet another example of the idiocy of our populace.
Maybe we should have thought a little when we backed the Shaw if Iran and backed Saddam. Our foreign relations have been a mess for years and Bush just keeps the same thing moving ahead.
Break the cycle of poor planning and ideas, VOTE KERRY
We don't need to give a fuck to what anyone says. We just need to pay attention to what the folks in power DO. Like give big $$$ in tax cut to the richest (are you one of them?), point our biggest gun at the wrong target, run up the biggest deficits ever, let shit happen like Abu Gareb Prisons, Al Ka Ka missing explosives, letting poor Iraqies that work for us get executed on the side of the road, START A WAR WHEN THERE WERE NO WMD, etc. SHALL I GO ON?
The sooner we get rid of president DumbAss the better.
Actually, we get what we deserve if the Stanford prediction comes to pass. Our kids will be left to cleanup the monumental mess Bush has made. The folks I really feel for are those outside our borders who will take the brunt of another 4 years of Bush and they had no say in their fate. Its all very sad. What a bunch of idiots we have as citizens.
Tax cuts only for the rich (well, bent very far in that direction), a war started over mistakes, a preemptive policy that will bankrupt us and leave (left?) our country with no credibility, Osama is still on the loose and quite capable of attacks around the world. I sure as hell don't feel safer and anyone with half a brain would not either.
Even folks who are pro Bush seem to want to distance themselves from him. I have a *misguided* friend that intends to vote for Bush in CA but says that because he is in CA and his vote will be overridden by the majority of voters in CA that "he can't be blamed" if Bush wins. Sounds like a great way to wash yourself of responsibility of re-electing the worst president this country has ever had!
Faux news is great! I love to laugh at the ridiculous things stated on that show! I love it!
Note that Sinclair is a busness. As such it wants to make $$$ at every oportunity. Last I heard F911 made over $250M. If the Kerry bash piece is such a great work of art that it would actually catch an audience they would have released it to the theaters. Obviously it must be a total bore. THATS why they have to shove it down our throats.
F911 is a riot (in addition to being a pretty good basher of the Bushies). Mr Moore put up a $$$ bounty on anyone who could disprove the content of 911. AFAIK that has not happened. If it were such a piece of propoganda SOMEONE would have poked lots of holes in it. I, for one DO believe that Bush has a cozy relationship with the Saudi royal family. Just too much evidence to dismiss the hypothesis.
Oh, and I am a registered Republican -- and am embarassed that my party has Bush for a candidate. Yikes.
Mr Moore never packaged his movie as "news". The Sinclair group was intending on prempting nominal scheduled programming for an important "news" event -- thus shoving the drivel down the throats of people thinking they are watching un-biased news. This REALLY is repugnant -- and I am a republican!!!
Why would Mr Clark even be asked about having the aircraft takeoff if higher ups did not wish this to happen? Allowing the Bin Ladens to leave without having been interviewed by the FBI was a horrendous mistake. One of many by the Bush (league) white house.
When learning aerobatics I used to place my wallet on the dashboard above the instrument panel. I would dive the airplane, pull up, then nose over with forward stick to follow a parabolic curve to achieve near zero observed gravity. By pushing the stick a little further forward I could lift the wallet off the dash. By adding some throttle I could bring the wallet back to me. It was a fun exercise to fly the airplane around a falling wallet.
I wonder if Melvill had a similar plan with the M&M's?
I have a redhat 7.2 based system. It is not really 7.2 anymore because I have been doing LOTS of updates via source. I used to follow the strategy of upgrading the system to the latest distribution as they were released but found I was spending TONS of time trying to recover from each update.
Instead, I now just pull updates or new apps/kernels from the web in source form. I VERY rarely have problems with the "configure" script built into most of these. The install goes quite well in most cases. I *think* this has been a win for time spent to keep my system updated as opposed to updating the distribution. Packages for a distribution have so many dependencies that it becomes nearly impossible to install from packages after a distribution has been residing on a machine for more than 1 year.
So what if you already have a home server PC? This was my situation when I started to consider a tivo box. I thought it silly to have essentially two equivilant computers systems up 24/7. So I added the PVR function and TV video out to the PC.
Asthetics are not an issue as the PC sits in a closet. I pass remote control commands to it via a IR->RF->IR remote extender. The system is *almost* headless except for the TV. I run a long s-video cable from the PC to the TV for display and run MythTV for the PVR function. All up, the cost of adding PVR capability to the system was about $200 -- which included a cheap tuner/capture card and a 180 GB disk. Myth gives me free schedule updates and a very cool web based interface for programming the recordings. Even my wife is happy!
To do this from scratch is tougher. A budget for the system would be upwards of $800 or even $1000 to get a reasonable machine. Off the shelf may be better unless you already have a server. Take a gander at Here for pix of my *unfinished* HTPC.
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I recall reading a short about a future government's determination to stop an experiment in artificial life. The experiment was taking place between the orbits of mars and Jupiter. When the decision was made to end it due to perceived danger to life on earth, the selected strategy was to toss the colony into the Sun.
Of course, as the asteroid containing the engineered fungii passed the orbit of earth it managed to escape out of its enclosure in the asteroid -- as spores. These then were pushed back towards earth by the solar wind.
Fun Stuff!
Survival of the fittest -- and I can't believe that is us.
I just wish I had the endurance
How long till the "B" movie comes out detailing construction of this aquarium, catching the squid, putting it in and then having it escape before they close the hatch. It then goes on a rampage of manhattan, squeezing the life out of every junk bond trader it can get its tenticles on. I'd rent it!
- (Mr T's voice) A Plaaannnneee
He should enter.Lets update how govt really works here,
Congress members spend big $$$ to get elected. Large $$$ interests help make that happen. Big $$$ interests expect payback for their assistance. These are not dumb people -- they put money where they think it will do their busness/organization some good. The Congress member is bound to "dance with them what brung ya".
It would take a MAJOR campaign reform would put government back in the hands of the people (as in by and for).
The creators and producers would be more than willing to make as many seasons as the advertizers will subsidize.,br>
Perhaps the "comercial spaceflight" industry, instead of makding donations, should just make a large and expensive ad buy?
My MythTV MythTV system allows me to skip commercials. Works great. Detects commercials via a blnk frame and scene change strategy. MUCH better than Tivo. When the comercial break starts allI have to do is hit one button on the remote and viola -- starts playing the program again!
So, in you example, would use of the hunting rifle in the apt be considered negligent by measure of the extreem danger to bystanders? By that measure your snubbie in a reasonably public urban area carries just as much hazard to bystanders, correct?
I am curious about the level of weaponry necessary for self defense in your opinion. Is a 44 magnum required/necessary? 18 shot mag? full auto? armor penatrating rounds?
Just wondering where we draw the line on what is acceptable for self defense and what is a manace to society at large, given that many weapons purchased for self defense are stolen and end up in the wrong hands. There is a real downside to having even more guns out in out towns.
There was a time when a vote for the 3rd party also rans made sense. Not this time. I voted for Nader in years past and would welcome the opportunity to do so again. This year, however, the stakes are too high.
Savvy voters are not going to toss a vote down the toilet on Nader this time around. Simple as that.
- Starting a war under false/erroneous pretense
- Ignoring military recomendation to have 400,000 boots on the ground to occupy
- Miscalculating (boy it this an understatement) how the occupied Iraqies will react to our invastion
- Ignoring calls to have a terrorism on the front burner when he came to office
- Making bellicose threats against Osama and not being able to deliver
- no bid contracts
- Karl Rove
- Not being able to complete a coherent thought without a teleprompter
- Ignoring global warming
- Not fulfilling his commitment to the National Guard
- Failing at every business deal he was ever involved with (except Rangers baseball team which was given to him on a silver platter).
- Starting a war without planning on paying for it. Our kids will be on the hook for this debacle for decades
- In general has been a clueless, previledged jerk.
On the otherhand we have Kerry:Not really correct, as Bush is going to win in a landslide all you republicans out there can skip this election!
All polls have limited value sensing the future. Look at the 2000 election where the poll in Hawaii was tied just before the vote (like it is now) and Gore won by 18 points.
For some reason we have a insatiable thirst for "information" -- in the form of polls. It has been pointed out that the run of the mill poll is only calling land line subscribers. Zogby made an attempt to put in a correction factor for this.
I think its probably closer to "real" information that asking 12 year olds their opinion so I would no classify it total trash. But on the other hand, I kinda think all polls are junk.
If you are right about the US populace not caring about leaders outside our borders (and I suspect that you are -- partially) then its yet another example of the idiocy of our populace.
Maybe we should have thought a little when we backed the Shaw if Iran and backed Saddam. Our foreign relations have been a mess for years and Bush just keeps the same thing moving ahead.
Break the cycle of poor planning and ideas, VOTE KERRY
We don't need to give a fuck to what anyone says. We just need to pay attention to what the folks in power DO. Like give big $$$ in tax cut to the richest (are you one of them?), point our biggest gun at the wrong target, run up the biggest deficits ever, let shit happen like Abu Gareb Prisons, Al Ka Ka missing explosives, letting poor Iraqies that work for us get executed on the side of the road, START A WAR WHEN THERE WERE NO WMD, etc. SHALL I GO ON?
The sooner we get rid of president DumbAss the better.
Actually, we get what we deserve if the Stanford prediction comes to pass. Our kids will be left to cleanup the monumental mess Bush has made. The folks I really feel for are those outside our borders who will take the brunt of another 4 years of Bush and they had no say in their fate. Its all very sad. What a bunch of idiots we have as citizens.
Tax cuts only for the rich (well, bent very far in that direction), a war started over mistakes, a preemptive policy that will bankrupt us and leave (left?) our country with no credibility, Osama is still on the loose and quite capable of attacks around the world. I sure as hell don't feel safer and anyone with half a brain would not either.
4 more years of this nonsense? Wonderful.
Even folks who are pro Bush seem to want to distance themselves from him. I have a *misguided* friend that intends to vote for Bush in CA but says that because he is in CA and his vote will be overridden by the majority of voters in CA that "he can't be blamed" if Bush wins. Sounds like a great way to wash yourself of responsibility of re-electing the worst president this country has ever had!
Faux news is great! I love to laugh at the ridiculous things stated on that show! I love it!
Note that Sinclair is a busness. As such it wants to make $$$ at every oportunity. Last I heard F911 made over $250M. If the Kerry bash piece is such a great work of art that it would actually catch an audience they would have released it to the theaters. Obviously it must be a total bore. THATS why they have to shove it down our throats.
F911 is a riot (in addition to being a pretty good basher of the Bushies). Mr Moore put up a $$$ bounty on anyone who could disprove the content of 911. AFAIK that has not happened. If it were such a piece of propoganda SOMEONE would have poked lots of holes in it. I, for one DO believe that Bush has a cozy relationship with the Saudi royal family. Just too much evidence to dismiss the hypothesis.
Oh, and I am a registered Republican -- and am embarassed that my party has Bush for a candidate. Yikes.
Mr Moore never packaged his movie as "news". The Sinclair group was intending on prempting nominal scheduled programming for an important "news" event -- thus shoving the drivel down the throats of people thinking they are watching un-biased news. This REALLY is repugnant -- and I am a republican!!!
Why would Mr Clark even be asked about having the aircraft takeoff if higher ups did not wish this to happen?
Allowing the Bin Ladens to leave without having been interviewed by the FBI was a horrendous mistake. One of many by the Bush (league) white house.
I would love to see this too.
When learning aerobatics I used to place my wallet on the dashboard above the instrument panel. I would dive the airplane, pull up, then nose over with forward stick to follow a parabolic curve to achieve near zero observed gravity. By pushing the stick a little further forward I could lift the wallet off the dash. By adding some throttle I could bring the wallet back to me. It was a fun exercise to fly the airplane around a falling wallet.
I wonder if Melvill had a similar plan with the M&M's?
I have a redhat 7.2 based system. It is not really 7.2 anymore because I have been doing LOTS of updates via source. I used to follow the strategy of upgrading the system to the latest distribution as they were released but found I was spending TONS of time trying to recover from each update.
Instead, I now just pull updates or new apps/kernels from the web in source form. I VERY rarely have problems with the "configure" script built into most of these. The install goes quite well in most cases. I *think* this has been a win for time spent to keep my system updated as opposed to updating the distribution. Packages for a distribution have so many dependencies that it becomes nearly impossible to install from packages after a distribution has been residing on a machine for more than 1 year.
So what if you already have a home server PC? This was my situation when I started to consider a tivo box. I thought it silly to have essentially two equivilant computers systems up 24/7. So I added the PVR function and TV video out to the PC.
Asthetics are not an issue as the PC sits in a closet. I pass remote control commands to it via a IR->RF->IR remote extender. The system is *almost* headless except for the TV. I run a long s-video cable from the PC to the TV for display and run MythTV for the PVR function. All up, the cost of adding PVR capability to the system was about $200 -- which included a cheap tuner/capture card and a 180 GB disk. Myth gives me free schedule updates and a very cool web based interface for programming the recordings. Even my wife is happy!
To do this from scratch is tougher. A budget for the system would be upwards of $800 or even $1000 to get a reasonable machine. Off the shelf may be better unless you already have a server. Take a gander at Here for pix of my *unfinished* HTPC.
Maybe Teleron