Hour and minute display advances "when it's ready, not to meet some arbitrary deadline"
Bitter feud group quickly breaks out between "traditional 24 hour per day" faction and "16 hour per day (hey, it translates to machine code easier)" faction. Latter group leaves to create "GeekTime" fork.
Informal contest develops among early adopters to overclock the watch. Alpha geek manages to make clock complete a full day in under 100ms.
Ringworld was supposed to have been made into a movie. Now it appears that Halo will make it to the screen first, and after it does, what studio would dare bring out a "Halo ripoff"?
Another book I'd love to see on the big screen is "The Shadow of the Torturer" by Gene Wolfe. I think there was talk of this happening, but it fell through as do so many movie projects.
Oh and just about any Heinlein that has not already been made into a movie. "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", "Stranger in a Strange Land", and "The Number of the Beast" would top my list.
To underscore the importance of these awards, all three TV networks and CNN carried the presentation ceremony live, in prime time.
Viewers were momentarily startled by the appearance of flying pigs in the background, apparently rising out of a hole in the ground leading up from a frozen hell.
An interesting idea. A similar idea concerning the relation of humans to their gods was put forth by Julian Jaynes in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, in which he argues that early humans were not "conscious" in the sense that we use the word today, and that they interpreted the commands of their own minds as "divine instructions", much as a schizoophrenic might do.
Come on, we're talking Hollywood here! They don't do "gravity wells" and "freefall". It's either propeller plane dogfight (a la Star Wars) or destroyers vs. submarines (a la Wing Commander). When is the last time you saw a movie with realistic physics? I can remember two: 2001 A Space Odyssey, and Mission to Mars.
If you want to check and see whether the ship was hovering over a planet, rent the movie. But I warn you - it will be two hours of your life that you will never get back!
Dont forget Wing Commander. So bad I walked out and demanded a refund - the only movie that has ever moved me to do so.
Here's a sample: the main spaceship is a sort of "aircraft carrier" that carries fighters. So far so good, only the scriptwriter apparently did his research by watching old WWII films. In one scene there is a fighter on the deck, damaged beyond repair, and the crew push it off so others can land. After they clear it off the deck the fighter falls over the side, like it would if it were in a WWII film, on an aircraft carrier sailing the ocean, at the bottom of a gravity well, where things fall down.
And don't get me started on the sonar. In space. "Ping!" "Ping!". Sheesh.
They should teach this in history class. There hasn't been a declaration of war since 1941, yet U.S. troops have fought in:
1950 Korea
1961 Vietnam (to 1973)
1965 Dominican Republic
1966 Guatemala
1969 Cambodia
1971 Laos
1982 Lebanon
1983 Grenada
1989 Panama
1990 Kuwait,Iraq
1992 Somalia
1994 Bosnia,Kosovo
2001 Afghanistan
2003 Iraq
Not counting various missile strikes, CIA operations, commando raids, etc., which might be considered legitimate without a declaration of war (but certainly would be casus belli for the country being invaded).
Congress voting an "authorization to use force" is a sham and an insult to the Constitution.
"Why else would we routinely drop $50 on the latest iteration of games like Madden, Final Fantasy and Unreal Tournament... Why do we continue to spend upwards of $300 on the newest 'next generation' console?"
Why do we even get out of bed in the morning? Why do we do anything at all? I mean, life is basically pointless, right?
Now, suppose we assume that that galaxy is roughly squarish
Ah, that reminds me of one of my favorite jokes:
The owner of a large dairy wants to increase the efficiency of his business, so he goes to the local university for some ideas. Unfortunately all of the biologists and engineers are busy, but he does run into a professor of physics, who impresses him with his great intelligence. The physicist agrees to help, saying "I vill get to vork on it at vonce!"*
After a few weeks pass the dairyman gets a call from the professor telling him that he has made an amazing discovery. He rushes down to the university and the physicist sits him down in front of a blackboard to sketch out his idea. The professor draws a large circle and says:
The glasses are more like an ersatz contraceptive.
You know that's something I've never understood: if geeks aren't able to reproduce, where do the new geeks come from??? It's not like there's ever any shortage of geeks, new ones are cropping up all the time.
Is there some sort of recessive mutation? Some little gene with thick glasses and a lisp that randomly takes over the Y chromosome and then WHOOPS the blonde hunky adonis dad looks down and sees that (gulp) his newborn son is a geek?
Hmm, this has real possibilities! What other safety features can be turned into amusing accident deterrents?
Airbags: fill them with rusty nails and broken glass. On impact they burst open into the passenger compartment.
Windshield: made of Peril-Sensitive(tm) glass, it turns opaque in the crucial few seconds before a crash, making recovery next to impossible. Even more amusing, the windows roll down automatically so the driver has a chance to lean his head out the window, increasing his visibility, but also his risk of decapitation.
Seatbelts: are now neckbelts (thanks to the Onion for this one)
OnStar button: replaced by a thin membrane covering the 12V outlet. Pushing it breaks through the membrane and gives the driver a nasty shock.
I wonder, how much manure would an FTL horse produce? Is there a special form of relativity declaring that the amount of manure increases to infinity as the horse approaches the speed of light?
That would be a lot of horseshit - just like this article.
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...and they don't even need stage names, since they are already named "Bush".
2. Shoot recipient
3. Steal kidney from corpse
4. Reimplant kidney in self
5. Go to step 1
Voila! An endless source of cash.
You math geeks need to multiply. :)
So, that would be:
It wouldn't be the first time a religious zealot and a prostitute were bedfellows :)
Another book I'd love to see on the big screen is "The Shadow of the Torturer" by Gene Wolfe. I think there was talk of this happening, but it fell through as do so many movie projects.
Oh and just about any Heinlein that has not already been made into a movie. "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", "Stranger in a Strange Land", and "The Number of the Beast" would top my list.
Viewers were momentarily startled by the appearance of flying pigs in the background, apparently rising out of a hole in the ground leading up from a frozen hell.
An interesting idea. A similar idea concerning the relation of humans to their gods was put forth by Julian Jaynes in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, in which he argues that early humans were not "conscious" in the sense that we use the word today, and that they interpreted the commands of their own minds as "divine instructions", much as a schizoophrenic might do.
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto"...
Actually, it's Eric Rudolph
Shto?!! That is filthy, American lie! Stock exchange runs on top quality Bol'shaya Ehlektronno-Schetnaya Mashina! Look at picture!
Is massive mainframe system! With boshoya power! As much as, er, four 286s and an Apple IIe ...
More evidence of Intelligent Design. By Satan.
(cue distant, evil laugh) "muahahaha!"
If you want to check and see whether the ship was hovering over a planet, rent the movie. But I warn you - it will be two hours of your life that you will never get back!
Here's a sample: the main spaceship is a sort of "aircraft carrier" that carries fighters. So far so good, only the scriptwriter apparently did his research by watching old WWII films. In one scene there is a fighter on the deck, damaged beyond repair, and the crew push it off so others can land. After they clear it off the deck the fighter falls over the side, like it would if it were in a WWII film, on an aircraft carrier sailing the ocean, at the bottom of a gravity well, where things fall down.
And don't get me started on the sonar. In space. "Ping!" "Ping!". Sheesh.
At least, not in a legal, constitutional sense.
In every other way it most certainly was a war. A semantic distinction, to be sure, but a very important one.
Not counting various missile strikes, CIA operations, commando raids, etc., which might be considered legitimate without a declaration of war (but certainly would be casus belli for the country being invaded).
Congress voting an "authorization to use force" is a sham and an insult to the Constitution.
No one knows. So far we have been unable to make chips that small.
Scientists are hard at work on the problem though. They hope to soon have a tiny potato that they can cut up into (wait for it...) microchips.
Thank you! I'll be here all week.
Why not just teach them real dancing?
Is that where you keep your slave drives?
Why do we even get out of bed in the morning? Why do we do anything at all? I mean, life is basically pointless, right?
Oh boy! Let's see:
It's good to be the King!
Ah, that reminds me of one of my favorite jokes:
The owner of a large dairy wants to increase the efficiency of his business, so he goes to the local university for some ideas. Unfortunately all of the biologists and engineers are busy, but he does run into a professor of physics, who impresses him with his great intelligence. The physicist agrees to help, saying "I vill get to vork on it at vonce!"*
After a few weeks pass the dairyman gets a call from the professor telling him that he has made an amazing discovery. He rushes down to the university and the physicist sits him down in front of a blackboard to sketch out his idea. The professor draws a large circle and says:
"First, ve assume a spherical cow..."
* In jokespace, physicists are always German.
You know that's something I've never understood: if geeks aren't able to reproduce, where do the new geeks come from??? It's not like there's ever any shortage of geeks, new ones are cropping up all the time.
Is there some sort of recessive mutation? Some little gene with thick glasses and a lisp that randomly takes over the Y chromosome and then WHOOPS the blonde hunky adonis dad looks down and sees that (gulp) his newborn son is a geek?
That would be a lot of horseshit - just like this article.