As a native to the Pacific Northwest, this is something you are constantly aware of. Every time there is a major earthquake or tsunami, the local news posts stories about how the "Big one" is due to hit in the next 50 years. Every time a volcanic eruption becomes major news, we get reports about how Mount Rainer is going to erupt and bury my hometown. I was born a year after our last major volcanic eruption, so you could say that this has been something I have been aware of my entire life.
More interesting than when the big one is going to hit is how well we are setup to handle it when it does. I was in a building rated only for a 7.0 Ricter magnitude quake during our last major quake (which measured 6.8), and there were major fears that the building was going to collapse either during or just after the quake. Luckily for me, it weathered the quake with only minor damage.
However, after the Chile quake last year, I heard a report from our local NPR affiliate comparing the infrastructure of the NW with the infrastructure of Chile (our buildings are built to roughly the same standards, and are around the same age), and mentioning that the state governments up here were taking interest in learning from the lessons of that quake to prepare better for our next big quake.
In this case the term 'ways' is used synonymously with 'distance'. This comes from using the word 'way' to mean 'road' as in 'highway'. 'Ways' is then by definition 'a large distance'.
'A ways to go' actually a colloquialism, so I understand your confusion.
This story is why I spent the first hour of my day contacting my congress-persons to ask they vote against this bill. From the role call, I can see my representative voted for the bill.
But, we still have a chance to prevent this from becoming law. Contact your senator today to ask that they vote no on this bill.
My wife was sent an email from a trusted friend of hers, which recommended she go to a particular website, and fill out a survey to receive a $25US gift card to Target (a major US retailer). As this email had come from a trusted friend, my wife, who is very computer savvy, went to the site to fill out the survey.
Once the survey posted, she noticed that her browser began acting very unusual. The website apparently hijacked her browser, backed up into her email, and proceeded to send emails to every person whom appeared in her inbox. She was so startled that she was not able to close her browser in time to stop this from occurring.
Now, the language used in the email appeared to be a form template, as the text which in the email I received from her was identical to the text she had recieved, but other than this it sounds fairly similar to what the article is discussing.
How soon will it be before we cannot even trust emails sent to us from our closest associates? This is totally unreasonable.
This Popular Mechanics article also speaks of something (AC Gravity) which also cannot really be explained using current quantum physics.
Now, IANAQP (I am not a Quantum Physicist), but the two models seem to be somewhat similar to me as a lay person who reads a lot about physics. One (Hyperdrive) deals with rotating magenetic fields, and the other (AC Gravity) seems to deal with rotating electric fields. Physics tells us that these are aspects of the same fundamental force, electromagnetism.
I've seen a lot of complaints about how 'unrealistic' this idea is, but could it just be that the physicists in question are uncovering new portions of reality? Could the 4 additional dimentions needed for the Hyperdrive (mentioned in the New Scientist article) be similar to the 7 additional dimentions used by M Theory?
I have seen some episodes where they had to cut back/scale out some of the tests they wished to perform due to insurance concerns.
I specifically recall that the attempt to flip a taxi was almost cancelled because they could not get an insurance underwritter until the last minute.
About the 'science' used in the show
on
Ask The Mythbusters
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I have heard several times of supposed myths which were 'Busted' on your show, only to be refuted by scientists, educators, government officials, etc.
A particular incident of this which comes to mind was the 'myth' of 'Urinating on the Third Rail', which had been 'Busted' on the show, but which was later refuted by officials from a large city (I believe it was New York) who stated that several people each year are electrocuted by contact with the third rail in their subways, and felt the show had misportrayed the safety hazards of contact with a third rail.
What efforts do you take to ensure that the science of the tests you are performing is valid? Do you have any sort of outside independant review (similar to a scientific peer review process), to ensure that you are not accidentally miseducating the public (either about potential real dangers, or simply by teaching bad science)?
I have to say, this was a great time. Not only did I have fun, meet Gabe and Tycho (who happen to be friends of a IRL friend of mine), eat great food, meet great people, and donate some money to charity, but another friend of mine who was with us won a tour of Nintendo of America during the live auction, and I almost won a tour of Wizards of the Coast.
To give you some idea of how much pull Gabe and Tycho have out there, Nintendo doesn't usually do tours...
People had come from all over to go to this event. I actually met a guy, a high-ranking doctor in the U.S. Army, who had come over from Korea simply to attend to this dinner for the auction.
Overall, it was a completely unforgettable experience, and I most ferverently recommend it to anyone who can come. I'm already planning to book my tickets for this year's event.
The most recent sourcebook they have produced for New Orleans was for their 'Vampire: the Requiem' game line.
Not saying that it isn't good about the donations for Katrina victims and all, just that roleplaying sourcebooks for the Big Easy have been around for a while.
Interesting side note though...the sourcebook above, though written several months before Katrina, had an introdutory story, called "The Coming Storm", which ended with a very prophetic line, which went something like this: "Have no doubt, the storm is coming."
Speaking first hand, from a company in a similar situation as the OP, make sure you speak to the IT managers as well. Each manager may have overlapping responsibilities, which any restructuring will expose.
I have seen attempts at restructuring completely bog down after some overlap was cleared up, because some of the managers involved became more interested in fighting for their authority than in improving the company procedures.
Make sure you have a clear mandate from above, which can be used to enforce any policy or responsibility changes you implement, managerial and staff buyoff on the changes to be implemented, and a clear plan for restructuring, or you'll end up in a worst place than you are now.
The Machine will take on anything we do more than twice.
So you mean I can get rid of such tedious tasks as eating, sleeping, breathing, bathing, etc., etc., et al?
Viva la revolution!
Seriously though, I'm really tired of seeing people come out with predictions about how the Internet will evolve into something which will cure global ills, solve social problems, etc, etc, ad naseum!
The Internet is a tool, nothing more. And like all tools, the more powerful it is, the more dangerous it is to the individuals using it.
Force FX LightSabers
My cousin has a pair of these, and my wife and I checked them out about a week ago. He paid about 99$US each at a chain movie store. This would have covered their visuals and their sound effects (at least so much as you would need for a home movie). And, according to the guys at ThinkGeek, they will hold up to some small-scale combat.
200$US has to be less expensive than their medical bills will be...
which would be possible between the Museum of the Future and Paul Allen's Science Fiction Museum! It would be great if they had coordinated exhibits, so that you could go to the SFM to see the place in science fiction where the idea came from, and then go to the Museum of the Future to see what's being done to make the fiction a reality.
Does anyone have a favorite invention from science fiction which they think would work in the new museum?
Personally, I would like to see the "Bronto Burgers" (made from real dinosaurs), "Eggplant" (now with 5 yolks!), and the walk-in genetic makeovers using nanomachines and custom viruses (which would make things like fully-functional sex changes and animal-human grafts possible) from John Varley's Steel Beach.
Slashdot Mirror
As a native to the Pacific Northwest, this is something you are constantly aware of. Every time there is a major earthquake or tsunami, the local news posts stories about how the "Big one" is due to hit in the next 50 years. Every time a volcanic eruption becomes major news, we get reports about how Mount Rainer is going to erupt and bury my hometown. I was born a year after our last major volcanic eruption, so you could say that this has been something I have been aware of my entire life.
More interesting than when the big one is going to hit is how well we are setup to handle it when it does. I was in a building rated only for a 7.0 Ricter magnitude quake during our last major quake (which measured 6.8), and there were major fears that the building was going to collapse either during or just after the quake. Luckily for me, it weathered the quake with only minor damage.
However, after the Chile quake last year, I heard a report from our local NPR affiliate comparing the infrastructure of the NW with the infrastructure of Chile (our buildings are built to roughly the same standards, and are around the same age), and mentioning that the state governments up here were taking interest in learning from the lessons of that quake to prepare better for our next big quake.
In this case the term 'ways' is used synonymously with 'distance'. This comes from using the word 'way' to mean 'road' as in 'highway'. 'Ways' is then by definition 'a large distance'.
'A ways to go' actually a colloquialism, so I understand your confusion.
This story is why I spent the first hour of my day contacting my congress-persons to ask they vote against this bill. From the role call, I can see my representative voted for the bill.
But, we still have a chance to prevent this from becoming law. Contact your senator today to ask that they vote no on this bill.
Don't know who your senator is? Check out this
My wife was sent an email from a trusted friend of hers, which recommended she go to a particular website, and fill out a survey to receive a $25US gift card to Target (a major US retailer). As this email had come from a trusted friend, my wife, who is very computer savvy, went to the site to fill out the survey.
Once the survey posted, she noticed that her browser began acting very unusual. The website apparently hijacked her browser, backed up into her email, and proceeded to send emails to every person whom appeared in her inbox. She was so startled that she was not able to close her browser in time to stop this from occurring.
Now, the language used in the email appeared to be a form template, as the text which in the email I received from her was identical to the text she had recieved, but other than this it sounds fairly similar to what the article is discussing.
How soon will it be before we cannot even trust emails sent to us from our closest associates? This is totally unreasonable.
In Soviet Russia, Bench mark you...
This Popular Mechanics article also speaks of something (AC Gravity) which also cannot really be explained using current quantum physics.
Now, IANAQP (I am not a Quantum Physicist), but the two models seem to be somewhat similar to me as a lay person who reads a lot about physics. One (Hyperdrive) deals with rotating magenetic fields, and the other (AC Gravity) seems to deal with rotating electric fields. Physics tells us that these are aspects of the same fundamental force, electromagnetism.
I've seen a lot of complaints about how 'unrealistic' this idea is, but could it just be that the physicists in question are uncovering new portions of reality? Could the 4 additional dimentions needed for the Hyperdrive (mentioned in the New Scientist article) be similar to the 7 additional dimentions used by M Theory?
I have seen some episodes where they had to cut back/scale out some of the tests they wished to perform due to insurance concerns.
I specifically recall that the attempt to flip a taxi was almost cancelled because they could not get an insurance underwritter until the last minute.
I have heard several times of supposed myths which were 'Busted' on your show, only to be refuted by scientists, educators, government officials, etc.
A particular incident of this which comes to mind was the 'myth' of 'Urinating on the Third Rail', which had been 'Busted' on the show, but which was later refuted by officials from a large city (I believe it was New York) who stated that several people each year are electrocuted by contact with the third rail in their subways, and felt the show had misportrayed the safety hazards of contact with a third rail.
What efforts do you take to ensure that the science of the tests you are performing is valid? Do you have any sort of outside independant review (similar to a scientific peer review process), to ensure that you are not accidentally miseducating the public (either about potential real dangers, or simply by teaching bad science)?
I have to say, this was a great time. Not only did I have fun, meet Gabe and Tycho (who happen to be friends of a IRL friend of mine), eat great food, meet great people, and donate some money to charity, but another friend of mine who was with us won a tour of Nintendo of America during the live auction, and I almost won a tour of Wizards of the Coast.
To give you some idea of how much pull Gabe and Tycho have out there, Nintendo doesn't usually do tours...
People had come from all over to go to this event. I actually met a guy, a high-ranking doctor in the U.S. Army, who had come over from Korea simply to attend to this dinner for the auction.
Overall, it was a completely unforgettable experience, and I most ferverently recommend it to anyone who can come. I'm already planning to book my tickets for this year's event.
The most recent sourcebook they have produced for New Orleans was for their 'Vampire: the Requiem' game line.
Not saying that it isn't good about the donations for Katrina victims and all, just that roleplaying sourcebooks for the Big Easy have been around for a while.
Interesting side note though...the sourcebook above, though written several months before Katrina, had an introdutory story, called "The Coming Storm", which ended with a very prophetic line, which went something like this: "Have no doubt, the storm is coming."
Speaking first hand, from a company in a similar situation as the OP, make sure you speak to the IT managers as well. Each manager may have overlapping responsibilities, which any restructuring will expose.
I have seen attempts at restructuring completely bog down after some overlap was cleared up, because some of the managers involved became more interested in fighting for their authority than in improving the company procedures.
Make sure you have a clear mandate from above, which can be used to enforce any policy or responsibility changes you implement, managerial and staff buyoff on the changes to be implemented, and a clear plan for restructuring, or you'll end up in a worst place than you are now.
The Machine will take on anything we do more than twice.
So you mean I can get rid of such tedious tasks as eating, sleeping, breathing, bathing, etc., etc., et al?
Viva la revolution!
Seriously though, I'm really tired of seeing people come out with predictions about how the Internet will evolve into something which will cure global ills, solve social problems, etc, etc, ad naseum!
The Internet is a tool, nothing more. And like all tools, the more powerful it is, the more dangerous it is to the individuals using it.
Force FX LightSabers
My cousin has a pair of these, and my wife and I checked them out about a week ago. He paid about 99$US each at a chain movie store. This would have covered their visuals and their sound effects (at least so much as you would need for a home movie). And, according to the guys at ThinkGeek, they will hold up to some small-scale combat.
200$US has to be less expensive than their medical bills will be...
which would be possible between the Museum of the Future and Paul Allen's Science Fiction Museum! It would be great if they had coordinated exhibits, so that you could go to the SFM to see the place in science fiction where the idea came from, and then go to the Museum of the Future to see what's being done to make the fiction a reality.
Does anyone have a favorite invention from science fiction which they think would work in the new museum?
Personally, I would like to see the "Bronto Burgers" (made from real dinosaurs), "Eggplant" (now with 5 yolks!), and the walk-in genetic makeovers using nanomachines and custom viruses (which would make things like fully-functional sex changes and animal-human grafts possible) from John Varley's Steel Beach.