Scientific, eh? Please cite peer-reviewed journal articles that have established these facts so that we may be suitably enlightened. Something along the lines of the well-regarded Transactions on Cinema Quality "Iron Man 2: A Study in Movie Deficiency", 2010 would do.
Inability to function without social links? You take anyone's friends away and they'll get lonely and anxious. For a lot of students, the internet is the only link to old friends and family that they have. Of course they're going to react badly to being isolated.
If I recall correctly, genetics are inherited from parents, so whether nature or nurture (or both, I agree) it all comes down to your parents.
And you're right - I am giving them too much credit. Originally I was going to use the phrase "so-called smart" but then I realised that they really are smart people, but also greedy and craven. You can be highly intelligent and also immoral.
I wonder what the ESA has to say about that, what with Hubble being a joint ESA venture and the largest space telescope being the Herschel Space Observatory (another ESA project).
Man, I'll bet NASA was pissed when they realised all those pictures of stars they thought they were taking were actually artifacts of the instrument itself!;)
Whether it's nature or nurture that's at fault, the ignorant are products of their parents/culture. If you're born in county, odds are you're going to grow up to be ignorant without any scope for choice in the matter. Certainly, some people by change have the opportunity to exercise the choice to stop being ignorant, but to do so they must have already started down that path somewhat. After all, the beginning of wisdom is to realise that you know nothing.
I don't blame the stupid and ignorant for being stupid or ignorant. I blame the smart people in charge of media and education who deny them the opportunity to be otherwise.
But of course the Pentagon can choose to manuever the X-37B right over Venezuela and aim the missile straight down, point blank.
Alas, orbital mechanics don't work that way. To 'drop' a bomb, the entry vehicle would have to apply thrust opposed to its orbital trajectory. This would alter the orbital trajectory until the semi-minor axis of the orbit enters the atmosphere around about where you want your warhead to go. Given the energies and velocities involved (and the need for cooling during aerobraking) this approach path tends to be pretty shallow. Consequently, you have to start your deorbit burn a fair ways out. They'll still see it coming, even if you have freaky high delta-V and take the shorted route to ground.
I don't know - I just thought it was a good post and had no mod points. I'm kinda of astounded that I got modded down for giving someone a compliment. Go figure.
It strikes me that making a child work to learn what they need to know in order to get what they want could be used for a variety of educational purposes. Want Facebook? Learn to hack the router. Want the car for the weekend? Learn to break the encryption on this cypher-locked safe. Want to avoid a grounding? Learn to blame it convincingly on your sister. Want to eat tonight? Learn to pick the lock on the refridgerator.
Sure, they may not pass standardised tests requiring them to know the average rainfall of the amazon rainforest (what a useless fact!) but it does give them valuable real-world skills.
Most people who want to use proper nouns already do. However, do you notice how suddenly everyone is talking about Scrabble (TM). Could it be they're just trying to stir up controversy to increase their head-space and sell more boxes of Old Faithful (TM) before New and Inferior (TM) becomes the norm?
I don't think they really care that people see it as a case of watering down an intellectual challenge into a pop-cultural pissing match. All news is good news and they're only in it for the money.
I would dispute this. The limitations on what can be mounted where are pretty minor, and mostly pertained to autocannons and gauss rifles being unable to mount hand actuators, if I recall correctly (I believe that was specified in the old Batteltech Compendium). It was actually pretty rare and aberrant omnimechs that had fixed weapons (eg. the Adder's flamer).
I disagree that most clan units were only partially omni. In fact, by Battletech Master Rules standards, a unit is either all omni or not omni at all. Certainly, the TRO:3050 units were entirely omni (with the aforementioned rare exceptions of fixed weapons). It was not until TRO:3060 that we saw partially-omni units (a series of omni-vehicles fielded by Wolf's Dragoons, I believe). I challenge you to present a canon partially-omni Clan mech from before 3060. Also, the only non-omni Clan mechs even mentioned prior to TRO-3055 are IS refits with Clan tech.
Yes, omni-tech is expensive, but given the Clans are run as a command economy ruled by a warrior elite, I'm pretty sure they feel the tradeoff is worth having. Also, in many Clans even second-line freebirth units still had omnimechs (they were just told what loadouts they had to have). Eg, Pershaw telling Aidan that he had to mount hand actuators instead of ballistic weapons in Blood Name.
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Scientific, eh? Please cite peer-reviewed journal articles that have established these facts so that we may be suitably enlightened. Something along the lines of the well-regarded Transactions on Cinema Quality "Iron Man 2: A Study in Movie Deficiency", 2010 would do.
Inability to function without social links? You take anyone's friends away and they'll get lonely and anxious. For a lot of students, the internet is the only link to old friends and family that they have. Of course they're going to react badly to being isolated.
... it was on the moon the whole time.
If I recall correctly, genetics are inherited from parents, so whether nature or nurture (or both, I agree) it all comes down to your parents.
And you're right - I am giving them too much credit. Originally I was going to use the phrase "so-called smart" but then I realised that they really are smart people, but also greedy and craven. You can be highly intelligent and also immoral.
Ah, sorry - markup failure. It was supposed to be brackets with 'Insert_Backward' county. And it was specifically 'county', not country.
We americans put a giant telescope into space.
I wonder what the ESA has to say about that, what with Hubble being a joint ESA venture and the largest space telescope being the Herschel Space Observatory (another ESA project).
Man, I'll bet NASA was pissed when they realised all those pictures of stars they thought they were taking were actually artifacts of the instrument itself! ;)
Actually, CIA is an initialism unless you pronounce it "Seeeeah".
Grammar nazis don't grow up - they just flee to Argentina.
Only if you pronounce NASA "En-Ay-Es-Ay"
I think that means they accept your apology?
Whether it's nature or nurture that's at fault, the ignorant are products of their parents/culture. If you're born in county, odds are you're going to grow up to be ignorant without any scope for choice in the matter. Certainly, some people by change have the opportunity to exercise the choice to stop being ignorant, but to do so they must have already started down that path somewhat. After all, the beginning of wisdom is to realise that you know nothing.
I don't blame the stupid and ignorant for being stupid or ignorant. I blame the smart people in charge of media and education who deny them the opportunity to be otherwise.
As a UAV researcher, I like that acronym - Space Unmanned Aerial VEhicle. It's SUAVE!
But of course the Pentagon can choose to manuever the X-37B right over Venezuela and aim the missile straight down, point blank.
Alas, orbital mechanics don't work that way. To 'drop' a bomb, the entry vehicle would have to apply thrust opposed to its orbital trajectory. This would alter the orbital trajectory until the semi-minor axis of the orbit enters the atmosphere around about where you want your warhead to go. Given the energies and velocities involved (and the need for cooling during aerobraking) this approach path tends to be pretty shallow. Consequently, you have to start your deorbit burn a fair ways out. They'll still see it coming, even if you have freaky high delta-V and take the shorted route to ground.
Halal food and prayer rugs.
I don't know - I just thought it was a good post and had no mod points. I'm kinda of astounded that I got modded down for giving someone a compliment. Go figure.
Back to snarky invective for me!
Your post is well thought out and coherent. Well done.
Apparently it causes Tourettes!
It strikes me that making a child work to learn what they need to know in order to get what they want could be used for a variety of educational purposes. Want Facebook? Learn to hack the router. Want the car for the weekend? Learn to break the encryption on this cypher-locked safe. Want to avoid a grounding? Learn to blame it convincingly on your sister. Want to eat tonight? Learn to pick the lock on the refridgerator.
Sure, they may not pass standardised tests requiring them to know the average rainfall of the amazon rainforest (what a useless fact!) but it does give them valuable real-world skills.
That said, a shrewd business move is a shrewd business move - arrogant or not. This was not a shrewd business move.
The media has never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.
Ah, you are correct. I concede my error - VX was a British invention. I am unsure what US-made agent I have it confused with.
You are kidding yourself if you believe the US doesn't have an arsenal of chemical weapons. These are the people who invented VX gas, remember.
Most people who want to use proper nouns already do. However, do you notice how suddenly everyone is talking about Scrabble (TM). Could it be they're just trying to stir up controversy to increase their head-space and sell more boxes of Old Faithful (TM) before New and Inferior (TM) becomes the norm?
I don't think they really care that people see it as a case of watering down an intellectual challenge into a pop-cultural pissing match. All news is good news and they're only in it for the money.
I would dispute this. The limitations on what can be mounted where are pretty minor, and mostly pertained to autocannons and gauss rifles being unable to mount hand actuators, if I recall correctly (I believe that was specified in the old Batteltech Compendium). It was actually pretty rare and aberrant omnimechs that had fixed weapons (eg. the Adder's flamer).
I disagree that most clan units were only partially omni. In fact, by Battletech Master Rules standards, a unit is either all omni or not omni at all. Certainly, the TRO:3050 units were entirely omni (with the aforementioned rare exceptions of fixed weapons). It was not until TRO:3060 that we saw partially-omni units (a series of omni-vehicles fielded by Wolf's Dragoons, I believe). I challenge you to present a canon partially-omni Clan mech from before 3060. Also, the only non-omni Clan mechs even mentioned prior to TRO-3055 are IS refits with Clan tech.
Yes, omni-tech is expensive, but given the Clans are run as a command economy ruled by a warrior elite, I'm pretty sure they feel the tradeoff is worth having. Also, in many Clans even second-line freebirth units still had omnimechs (they were just told what loadouts they had to have). Eg, Pershaw telling Aidan that he had to mount hand actuators instead of ballistic weapons in Blood Name.