Rule of thumb: A page in a novel does not equate to a page in a movie script. The former is rife with detail, the later substantially lacking in it and expecting the director to pad.
My personal opinion is that current SciFi has become navel-gazing soap opera. The Golden Age writers (actually, all good writers) knew that you didn't explore the ninety-ninth level of a character for angst. It's boring and you wind up with either an unbelievable character or your cousin, both of whom are boring.
Unless by action one means bang bang, it's necessary to have things happen, so it's necessary for there to be action. Even bodice-rippers rip bodices once in a while.
So, adolescent aliens in junk cars can ignore physics? They come across light-years to cow tip and sacrifice seeing family and friends for the pleasure?
Love the link. It reminds me of the dumb crap I bought into at age 12.
Equation: N = R* fp ne fl fi fc L
This is followed by an explanation of the 'variables' and the sentence "Most of these have not altered to any significant degree since that conference in 1961."
Wow! Talk about disingenuous. fp is changing as we get new pictures. Planetary systems are thought common instead of fairly rare as in '61. The rest are a joke.
ne (planets suitable for life) - unknown, we can't examine the small planets yet.
fl (planets with life) - unknown, we can't examine the small planets yet.
fi (those with intelligence) - unknowable.
fc (those with radio) - unknowable.
L (lifetime of advanced races)- unknowable.
Lessee, that's five of seven that are unknown and three of those cannot in any reasonable stretch of the imagination even be known. Great equation.
Well, they follow that with a lame caveat:
"Values for some of these parameters are, of course, open to considerable disagreement..."
Following that are the explanations for the current set of values. This is filled with such gems as (for fi and fc) "however many researchers of the topic agree 0.01". First, there are no researchers on this topic. Research cannot be done on this topic. What the author means is "however, many geeks during parlor talk fervently believe that 0.01". Not the same thing as science. Not a value to be used in anything but a parlor game.
L is another good example. They're just using the length of our civilization with nukes. That's right. They consider us to be the average for the lifetime of advanced civilizations. Our one known example is used to average a galaxies worth of possible civilizations. Utter drek.
This is what happens when dried scientists try to get sexy with parlor talk.
"...which come with a guarantee of unemployment after one year."
No. It's called the period of time after the contract expires. The only friggin' thing making it a time of unemployment is lack of searching for next job/contract.
I'm contemplating teaching science later this year. I can do this with great confidence and aplomb because I'm 58 and I can retire in two years. That means, I'll teach as I see fit and screw the parents, principal and school board. Fire me -- don't care. At least one or maybe more semesters of kids will learn some science and have an instructor honestly tell them what they need to work on.
Hate to burst your bubble Sparky, but standardized tests have been around since the Han dynasty. This includes the time when I graduated high school when there was a literacy rate way the hell above today. They're not the problem.
Here's a problem for you. Define a method of ensuring that a class of one hundred students have learned the basic information for the semester. Go.
Well, literacy falling from the ninety plus percentages to the fifties or sixties is pretty good evidence they (currently) can't handle books.
I don't, however, think electronic stimulation is the answer. What is? Go back the method that produced the above ninety percentages of literacy.
But, no. Why? That would show that the 'educators' who thought up the last forty years worth of bullshit educational ideas were being paid to masticate children's minds, not teach them.
Oooh. The new demigod. No. Clusters are tools. Science takes place in the brain and the real, empirical world. Computers are used to process data, that's not science, that's -- data processing. Compute models are used to check ideas. Again, not science, just -- fact checking.
You can tell that some people think that science is done in a computer by how they hold on to their computer based results. All the while looking at contradictory facts in the real world.
"It is worth having it(if) is it free but not worth it if you have to pay!"
What utter bullshit. If it's not worth paying for, it's not worth having. Your stance is, of course, the first step in the line of the "I want it free" crowd. Since it's "not worth paying for", force people to give it to you or rip them off , because heaven forbid those that don't feel it's worth paying for actually develop the ballocks to not buy it.
Now that you've cleaned it, it can be read. I still think you're off base on your presumptions.
Nobody is doing development of GM'd strains for resistence to infection, pests or drought for free. Look around. No one. Why would that be? No one works for free.
"It's an age-old right, giving farmers some independence - but if it were up to GM corps, it would be abolished as soon as possible, so farmers become fully dependend on THEIR seeds."
Uh, what orifice did you pull that from? Since when is it a "right" for a farmer to grown anything other than what they themselves have harvested? Farmers buy seed from Stark Seeds. Stark Seeds happens to sell heritage seeds. You have a point other than these aren't GM'd to be sterile? Would you be yelling and screaming if Monsanto did not make their GM'd seeds sterile? You bet your ass you would. It's about painting Monsanto wrong, so ya just take what they're doing and spin it.
"This film is a documentary in the tradition of Michael Moore..."
Not a stunning endorsement, that. MM, the guy who fabricates? The guy who's film about Flint was based on a complete lie?
"They are even pushing "Terminator" seeds, which are sterile, forcing farmers into purchasing seed from suppliers every year instead of keeping their seed for the next crop."
Yes. I've even seen pictures on the news at night of Monsanto agents holding guns to farmer's heads, preventing them from buying standard seeds without the terminator gene. Someone stop these bastards from forcing their seeds down people's throats!
If you buy Windows, you're being forced. If you buy Linux, you're not. If you buy Monsanto, you're being forced. If you buy Park Seeds, you're not.
Well, it was a troll because it failed to mention that the seeds are drought, disease and insect resistant. Something not found in standard crops. This allows greater yields and the chance that the Africans will friggin' live until next season. That is a hand-up, in my opinion.
There is not a thing preventing the industries and universities on continental Africa from producing resistant and hardy strains on their own. In the mean time, there's also nothing wrong with Monsanto and others to benefit from their efforts.
By the way... Just how much of your assets did you give to Africa?
No, Joe Sixpack -- and Frasier CollegeEd -- want TV for a simple reason, entertainment. They are not concerned about their 'diminished importance'. Only Marxist crap-stirrers spin that line.
Bad view of your co-citizens you have there.
"Digital TV... to realize his sorry state."
Unlike SlashDot does for the underwear clad basement-dwellers.
The food is not there after a drought. That's why people and animals die after a drought. You are ignorant. You might point out just where that food is.
You also might point out the infant mortality rate, life span and health of those hunter/gatherers.
Taking a course in Anthro 101 does not make you very learned in human social history (obviously). That's what further study is for.
Slashdot Mirror
Rule of thumb: A page in a novel does not equate to a page in a movie script. The former is rife with detail, the later substantially lacking in it and expecting the director to pad.
My personal opinion is that current SciFi has become navel-gazing soap opera. The Golden Age writers (actually, all good writers) knew that you didn't explore the ninety-ninth level of a character for angst. It's boring and you wind up with either an unbelievable character or your cousin, both of whom are boring.
Unless by action one means bang bang, it's necessary to have things happen, so it's necessary for there to be action. Even bodice-rippers rip bodices once in a while.
So, instead of exploring orbiting bodies in their system, they leapt across the galaxy to ours first thing? Get a grip.
So, adolescent aliens in junk cars can ignore physics? They come across light-years to cow tip and sacrifice seeing family and friends for the pleasure?
Love the link. It reminds me of the dumb crap I bought into at age 12.
Equation: N = R* fp ne fl fi fc L
This is followed by an explanation of the 'variables' and the sentence "Most of these have not altered to any significant degree since that conference in 1961."
Wow! Talk about disingenuous. fp is changing as we get new pictures. Planetary systems are thought common instead of fairly rare as in '61. The rest are a joke.
ne (planets suitable for life) - unknown, we can't examine the small planets yet.
fl (planets with life) - unknown, we can't examine the small planets yet.
fi (those with intelligence) - unknowable.
fc (those with radio) - unknowable.
L (lifetime of advanced races)- unknowable.
Lessee, that's five of seven that are unknown and three of those cannot in any reasonable stretch of the imagination even be known. Great equation.
Well, they follow that with a lame caveat:
"Values for some of these parameters are, of course, open to considerable disagreement..."
Following that are the explanations for the current set of values. This is filled with such gems as (for fi and fc) "however many researchers of the topic agree 0.01". First, there are no researchers on this topic. Research cannot be done on this topic. What the author means is "however, many geeks during parlor talk fervently believe that 0.01". Not the same thing as science. Not a value to be used in anything but a parlor game.
L is another good example. They're just using the length of our civilization with nukes. That's right. They consider us to be the average for the lifetime of advanced civilizations. Our one known example is used to average a galaxies worth of possible civilizations. Utter drek.
This is what happens when dried scientists try to get sexy with parlor talk.
"...which come with a guarantee of unemployment after one year."
No. It's called the period of time after the contract expires. The only friggin' thing making it a time of unemployment is lack of searching for next job/contract.
Slashdot proves otherwise.
You're kidding, right? You really think they meant over an entire trip as opposed to during the corresponding times?
Way to leap to an absurdum to try to make the other guy look bad.
How much does your foil hat weigh?
I'm contemplating teaching science later this year. I can do this with great confidence and aplomb because I'm 58 and I can retire in two years. That means, I'll teach as I see fit and screw the parents, principal and school board. Fire me -- don't care. At least one or maybe more semesters of kids will learn some science and have an instructor honestly tell them what they need to work on.
Hate to burst your bubble Sparky, but standardized tests have been around since the Han dynasty. This includes the time when I graduated high school when there was a literacy rate way the hell above today. They're not the problem.
Here's a problem for you. Define a method of ensuring that a class of one hundred students have learned the basic information for the semester. Go.
Well, literacy falling from the ninety plus percentages to the fifties or sixties is pretty good evidence they (currently) can't handle books.
I don't, however, think electronic stimulation is the answer. What is? Go back the method that produced the above ninety percentages of literacy .
But, no. Why? That would show that the 'educators' who thought up the last forty years worth of bullshit educational ideas were being paid to masticate children's minds, not teach them.
Can't have that.
"Clusters anyone?"
Oooh. The new demigod. No. Clusters are tools. Science takes place in the brain and the real, empirical world. Computers are used to process data, that's not science, that's -- data processing. Compute models are used to check ideas. Again, not science, just -- fact checking.
You can tell that some people think that science is done in a computer by how they hold on to their computer based results. All the while looking at contradictory facts in the real world.
Learning to curtain our footprint is quite different than having civilization taken away from you tomorrow.
"It is worth having it(if) is it free but not worth it if you have to pay!"
What utter bullshit. If it's not worth paying for, it's not worth having. Your stance is, of course, the first step in the line of the "I want it free" crowd. Since it's "not worth paying for", force people to give it to you or rip them off , because heaven forbid those that don't feel it's worth paying for actually develop the ballocks to not buy it.
"Their real goal is to force Google into a settlement that leeches off a steady stream of cash from Google."
Just like Google is leeching a steady stream of cash off of their products. Unfair, how?
Now that you've cleaned it, it can be read. I still think you're off base on your presumptions.
Nobody is doing development of GM'd strains for resistence to infection, pests or drought for free. Look around. No one. Why would that be? No one works for free.
"It's an age-old right, giving farmers some independence - but if it were up to GM corps, it would be abolished as soon as possible, so farmers become fully dependend on THEIR seeds."
Uh, what orifice did you pull that from? Since when is it a "right" for a farmer to grown anything other than what they themselves have harvested? Farmers buy seed from Stark Seeds. Stark Seeds happens to sell heritage seeds. You have a point other than these aren't GM'd to be sterile? Would you be yelling and screaming if Monsanto did not make their GM'd seeds sterile? You bet your ass you would. It's about painting Monsanto wrong, so ya just take what they're doing and spin it.
"This film is a documentary in the tradition of Michael Moore..."
Not a stunning endorsement, that. MM, the guy who fabricates? The guy who's film about Flint was based on a complete lie?
I think your analysis was indeed "hystorical".
Note to you:
You may disagree with the author all you want, but until you learn how to write, you will never be able to agrue effectively.
Since you will have virtually no one read your post in it's entirety, I find your last sentence to be of supreme irony.
GM has been around for a shorter time than humans have, and it has never wiped out groups of species.
Your point?
"They are even pushing "Terminator" seeds, which are sterile, forcing farmers into purchasing seed from suppliers every year instead of keeping their seed for the next crop."
Yes. I've even seen pictures on the news at night of Monsanto agents holding guns to farmer's heads, preventing them from buying standard seeds without the terminator gene. Someone stop these bastards from forcing their seeds down people's throats!
If you buy Windows, you're being forced. If you buy Linux, you're not. If you buy Monsanto, you're being forced. If you buy Park Seeds, you're not.
Bullshit.
Well, it was a troll because it failed to mention that the seeds are drought, disease and insect resistant. Something not found in standard crops. This allows greater yields and the chance that the Africans will friggin' live until next season. That is a hand-up, in my opinion.
There is not a thing preventing the industries and universities on continental Africa from producing resistant and hardy strains on their own. In the mean time, there's also nothing wrong with Monsanto and others to benefit from their efforts.
By the way... Just how much of your assets did you give to Africa?
Your analogy is friggin' retarded. An abducted child doesn't do it voluntarily, moron.
Just to snark you tag -
"American Democracy: One more candidate than Communism."
Did you pay attention to the last dozen or so races with more than two candidates?
No, Joe Sixpack -- and Frasier CollegeEd -- want TV for a simple reason, entertainment. They are not concerned about their 'diminished importance'. Only Marxist crap-stirrers spin that line.
... to realize his sorry state."
Bad view of your co-citizens you have there.
"Digital TV
Unlike SlashDot does for the underwear clad basement-dwellers.
The food is not there after a drought. That's why people and animals die after a drought. You are ignorant. You might point out just where that food is.
You also might point out the infant mortality rate, life span and health of those hunter/gatherers.
Taking a course in Anthro 101 does not make you very learned in human social history (obviously). That's what further study is for.