Seems really light on details considering a tested prototype. Didn't see any real details in article or in the NASA pages.
Would kind of like to know exactly how much power is generated and how long the fuel lasts, how much it weighs. About all it says like the name suggests that it will be in the range of kilowatts, and could possibly be scaled up to hundreds of kilowatts, maybe, or used in multiple reactor configurations. They say it "could" run between 1-10kw and "up to" 10 years. The presentation seems to indicate the test may have been 4kw? Anyway a lot of passive language for some reason. You would think by the nature of the the beast it would be pretty specific (i.e. given the amount of fuel, and power produced, it would be something X kg of fuel will produce 4kw for 7 years or something like that).
Also I'm imagine they would send redundant systems to mars, but considering the flight time to Mars (i.e. measured in years) a reactor that only lasts up to 10 years doesn't seem like enough of a buffer. You'd have to be sending replacements constantly which I can imagine would be expensive to say the least. Though I suppose this is the version 1.0 to which they expect to develop more as time goes on to produce more power, be lighter, last longer, though at the same time, you probably run into some hard physics in that regard that might be hard to finesse or tweak out of.
Prediction, Toronto wins. It is the only non-US option listed, and Jeff Bezos gets to stick it to Donald Trump.
Trump wants Amazon to pay more taxes, pay more to use the US Mail service, accuses Amazon of being a monopoly, and has been highly critical of the Washington Post to which Bezos owns.
Moving the Amazon HQ to Toronto not only thumbs the nose to Trump, but also sends a strong political message.
Of course at the same time, at this scale, if Trump were to extend the olive branch and shuts the heck up about all those things above, Bezos being a businessman might decide to locate the HQ in some red state to which Trump can take credit for creating jobs etc... I'd say the likelihood of that happening is such that the HQ is probably going to be located in Toronto by the end of it.
While kind of the same thing, but rather in 3 dimensions as opposed to just speed, the other thing was the fact that it flew at altitudes not normally transversed by other aircraft.
i.e. not only would said defense need to target and launch said missile, it would also have to climb to the required elevation to intercept which adds another challenge.
As I recall the issue with them was maintenance, and much of that to do with materials science. I remember one of the astounding facts about it was on the ground, it apparently leaked fuel like a sieve. It wasn't until it got up to speed that just the air friction would heat up the metal that it would expand and tighten up. Pretty crazy to think about it.
Just like folks export resource extraction like rare earth mining someplace else because it is dirty.
Just like German, and so I hear California shutting down nuclear power stations, but have zero problem buying the now deficient power from other places that produce it from nuclear power anyway.
It's basically just NIMBY at a global scale.
The insane part is walking around patting each other on the back like a job well done, when really they are just offloading whatever problem it is someplace else.
To put a positive spin on it, they also know their system works as it should if a real one was required. I mean that isn't nothing. Obviously they need some safe guards in place. As you say, it is likely a bit of a heads up for public awareness of preparation (or lack thereof currently) as to what to do in such an event (apart from bending over and kissing your ass goodbye, or looking for a good vantage point to watch the final show).
No its the highest recommended dosage by manufactures. At the recommendation of doctors I have taken dosages even larger than that.
However when I've taken it at such high dosages it was for acute temporary pain (i.e. injury trauma). However once past the hump which is probably measured in days, or perhaps a week, dosage down to more reasonable levels for a few weeks.
Sure if you take it for months at a time it probably isn't so good for you. Though at a guess if you are, likely the alternative isn't great either. I recall asking my doctor if it was really OK to go beyond the recommended maximum dosage on the bottle, and she said that it happens in the military all the time, so long as your young and healthy (outside of your current injury), and don't do it for any long period of time it shouldn't be a problem.
That said, as a guy, it isn't really all that great to hear this kind of news anyway...
"thoughtful and well researched"? Well in part I suppose, he made some cogent points that had some merit. However he also made some pretty wild and unfounded claims with little basis in reality. In addition, even some of the points that we say more based in reality insofar as they were technically correct, are not something that a corporation can legally (he made a point about morality, but that aside) take into consideration in their hiring practices. I'm specifically referring to things such as "work life balance" and paternity leave, because well it is known that women are able to have children (although that does not preclude that men also have the same thing, just in reality it is likely statistically lower impact on occurrences and business). Regardless that isn't something that a corporation can actually act on so it is a pretty moot point.
So while I agree with your assessment that the persons who leaked the information outside of the context it was being used in should have shared the responsibility in the result (i.e. fired), but that doesn't really preclude the fact that while he may have been asked for input into a dialog that doesn't excuse a response of a 10 page "manifesto" that included parts that were inappropriate, out of scope, and generally unacceptable.
He might have a leg to stand on in court depending on the stance (pardon pun) he and his lawyers take, abet a small one. The point of contention I'd be trying to make is if the memo wasn't released beyond what the intended audience was would have he still been fired without the PR onslaught? Perhaps, perhaps not. He could argue that while they might admonish or reprimand him, and perhaps not ask his opinion anymore about such matters, it was of no fault of his own that the memo was released causing the shitstorm that it did (unless he leaked it himself), and thus perhaps (and a big perhaps) not entirely his fault he was fired and thus eligible for some sort of compensation. That said, "conservative views", free speech, is protected, but that doesn't mean it exists in a vacuum outside of consequence.
I am not in the least surprised. This isn't anything malicious, or nefarious. I'm almost certain that this was implemented intentionally for user support purposes.
Users forgot their credentials all the time. If there is no backdoor, all their data is lost. Likely someone ran the risk matrix and determined it was better to have a backdoor that could provide access to users (likely support staff to go in and reset users password), than to have a bunch of angry users losing all their data all the time. Anyone that has worked in IT for any period of time will know that this issue is constant and likely the most numerous reason for support calls.
Further, if you're using a commercial WD Cloud NAS, you aren't holding the nuclear codes or any kind of of industrial secrets in there. At worst, there will be a lot of personal information you might not like out in the wild. Considering a user could presumably also further encrypt their data on said NAS if they really wanted to, if they were really storing something sensitive really puts it back onto the user. I wouldn't be surprised that somewhere buried in the WD cloud EULA all of this is explained and indemnified for WD.
The only thing I find a bit surprising is the half-assed way it was seemingly implemented. "The username is "mydlinkBRionyg" and the password is "abc12345cba"? Really? That is just lazy. They could have at least made the method a bit more difficult or at least came up with a username/password that wasn't something a 8 year old would come up with...
For "fun" many years ago, probably in 1999 if I recall correctly I decided to see if I could install Linux on my grandmothers old laptop her got rid of. If I recall correctly is was a 386 SX and ran at something like 4Mhz or something like that. It may have had 2MB of RAM but I can't really remember. I believe it originally came with GRID OS installed on it, but had since been installed with Dos/Windows perhaps though I vaguely recall using a DOS/Shell on it so perhaps the Windows install died after awhile.
In any case the first problem was that the smallest Linux distro I could find at the time was Damn Small Linux at 50MB, but the internal HD of the laptop was only 20MB so that was out of the question. However I did have an old parallel port ZipDrive collecting dust, and the laptop had a parallel port... So I installed DSL on a 100MB Zip Drive across a parallel port. I booted. And waited. and waited. and waited. and got tired of waiting and went and did something else for the rest of the day. When I checked it the next day, it had successfully booted, and even very helpfully gave a boot time at the end of it, which was measured in like 20+ hours or something ridiculous like that. Probably easier to communicate with the moon.
Anyway it worked however, and once it had booted it could do Linux type things, although each command no matter how simple was literally like communicating with the moon in that there was a lag of several seconds between entering it and anything actually happening on screen. It had good uptime though:) in that it took so long to boot that I just kept it on, however it really was pretty useless other than a proof of concept, and after being left on the one time for an extended period, I eventually just turned it off and never tried booting Linux on it again except for the one time for obvious reasons.
Either way beyond our capabilities to penetrate. Nothing we've ever sent to space has excavated anything beyond cm or perhaps a few metres that I'm aware. Also from what I remember the underwater properties is only postulated at. Perhaps sending a simple drill and a ice fishing line with a probe might be more reasonable. Also I seem to recall that the the "water" properties themselves is also a further postulation, in that it could quite possibly be more of a thick slush underneath to which a "swimming" probe might have trouble navigating... Anyway seems a lot of speculation to send a 10m probe to at this time. I'm all for visiting and trying experiments to ascertain the nature of the hydrology and getting some samples, only they might have to reign in some of their fanciful ideas of what is really reasonable.
Are you sure he had Cdiff? For "years"? I had it for 3 agony filled days. I'm pretty sure if you've had it for any length of time if would kill you. I'm pretty sure with the amount of pain I was in for 3 days I would have killed myself long before that at any rate if it didn't. Perhaps there is a range of severity, but I know with what I had there is no way I would have lasted anywhere as near as that long.
I had a similar problem. Had oral surgery, doctor prescribed an antibiotic I've never taken before (I've had penicillin and amoxicillin plenty before without issue). I forget what it was called but I remember him warning me not to ever drink alcohol on it as I would end up vomiting explosively apparently. At any rate it absolutely nuked all the flora and fauna in my gut apparently, and the about the following weekend I got Cdiff (just before Hockey Pool no less). Had it for 3 excruciating days. Was some of the worst suffering I've ever gone though. Went into emergency pretty quickly (typically I would wait at least a week or 2 to see if things resolve themselves), who prescribed another antibiotic which cleared it up almost immediately (like the next day thankfully), and hilariously ginger-ale as apparently even after only a couple of days I was severely dehydrated from essentially living on a toilet.
Anyway it was truly terrible, likely swallowing a half dozen angry scorpions, and I wouldn't wish in on my worst enemy. Anyway anything that contributes to it being a more infectious problem should be done away with, and quickly. I know having had it, if any food production contained something that could potentially dramatically increase your chances of getting Cdiff I certainly wouldn't be buying it...
"I've already completed 2 entire marriages!"... for some reason I translated that into a video game experience and saw the old xbox Achievement Unlocked popup come up in my mind lol!
All out road signs and speed limits are metric however, but the rest is the same. In addition we measure personal height and weight in imperial, though I met a British lad in university that swore the proper term was "stones"... I'll add to additional weird measurements we all use: BTU (British Thermal Units, or how many pints it takes a football hooligan to throw a fit), and HP (not House of Parliament sauce, which is quite tasty, but how many Horse Powers something might have, like the ability to neigh, and turn into a unicorn at night when the moon ifs full).
It all pretty much works, even as a hybrid, though socket sets get pretty large. The largest problem I have is more generational. My dad knows and uses temperature measurements in F, whereas I his son really only understands C. Not sure if that has something to do with when that particular change was adopted or what...
That's because it is gambling addiction, not gaming addiction. The WHO just lost a bunch of credibility in my books. Is gambling a form of gaming? Well yes, but not all gaming is gambling either.
I'd often wondered if I play so much Ability Draft in DOTA2 because I like the random element and drafting the best "hand" so to speak. If I'm not rolling the dice and gambling each game and that is what keeps bringing me back... Or maybe it is just fun and I enjoy it, I dunno.
ARMAGEDDON (1998): Lev Andropov: Components? American components, Russian components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!
I certainly remember when that was the joke. Hard to believe that was 20 years ago now!
I don't go far enough back to remember a Japan that was considered low quality. However I do recall how South Korea, mostly in terms of auto manufacturing, was considered junk, but have since turned that around. So much so, that getting a used KIA is so cheap because they depreciate so quickly because of the still lingering perception of low quality...
There is a pretty simple equation that has led to wealth inequality. There is also a pretty simple answer. However both are entrenched like ticks that changing either is likely difficult. Most people who are very rich inherit their wealth. Which isn't to say they don't grow it, but as the adage goes, you need money to make money. Most people in politics are very rich, and rich people are disproportionately able to influence political direction. Rule of law is put into place, to keep the status quo or to further enrich those that already are.
Case in point, the new Tax Law rammed through and now in effect will increase the Estate Tax (i.e. how much someone can inherit without paying tax on it), was just increased from 11 MILLION to 22 MILLION dollars. How on gods green earth can any politician reasonably justify said law and explain to the 99% that it is all in their best interests... just crazy.
The fix is to severely limit the estate tax (for an extended period of time), and to do that you will need to remove money from the political system (i.e. spending limitations, donation limits, severe limitations on both lobbying, and post political work). Anyway good luck with that, it is unfortunately a tale as old as time, which provided the 99% are relatively comfortable and cowed, will continue.
Yeah that was one of my beefs, but from more of a continuity perspective. I liked it from the "it looked cool" perspective I suppose.
i.e. they are just figuring out after 8 movies (and how many years of FTL space travel), that you can just light speed into someone to destroy them? Why doesn't everyone do that all the time? Why not do that with the previous death stars/death planet things? Where are all the FTL torpedoes? Shouldn't there be a whole gamete of FTL weapons (and counter measures) if one can so easily use it that way? Anyway while it was certainly cool looking, it made no sense.
What they should have done is have the general somehow explain with some technical mumbo gumbo and calculations that trying to hit another ship in the same place at FTL speed is a million to one chance (or something really high at least), making the tactic unwise but something perhaps only someone truly desprete would attempt, and she just got really really lucky... Or have Leia somehow force magic nudge it into place or something. I don't know, anything to make it a unique event that can't be replicated (explaining why it isn't used all the time). I mean they lost how many ships on that stupid bombing run, just take one ship and slap a stupid suicide droid in it and call it a fracking day.
You are surprised that The White House isn't trustworthy? I mean sure Trump takes it to next level shit, but pretty much all politicians that have been in that house have not been all that trustworthy... I mean there have been some pretty big ones in recent history. Bush, Nixon, Clinton, Regan, and I could probably list just about every single one of both political stripes. Maybe not Carter, he seems like a decent fellow, but then again I don't know a lot about him either.
During the dotcom, it was the pump and dumps getting dozens of millions of dollars, or in a few semi-legit cases that eventually went bust, hundreds of millions of dollars. It wasn't all that long ago...
This company that no one heard of before today is suddenly work 7,000 million dollars (7 Billion)? Of what? How? Crazy. There are whole established industries that aren't worth that.
This whole thing is blowing my mind. I have a feeling it is going to get bigger, maybe even much bigger, and people are going to start really looking around nervously about what the end result will be, that will inevitably be what we all think it is going to be, but may have a lot of unanticipated economic fallout.
A simple question. Where is that 7 Billion dollars coming from? Only private investors? What happens if the Banks that are all poo pooing the whole idea are greedily gobbling up as much crypo coin as they can get their grubby little hands on? Sound familiar?
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Seems really light on details considering a tested prototype. Didn't see any real details in article or in the NASA pages.
Would kind of like to know exactly how much power is generated and how long the fuel lasts, how much it weighs. About all it says like the name suggests that it will be in the range of kilowatts, and could possibly be scaled up to hundreds of kilowatts, maybe, or used in multiple reactor configurations. They say it "could" run between 1-10kw and "up to" 10 years. The presentation seems to indicate the test may have been 4kw? Anyway a lot of passive language for some reason. You would think by the nature of the the beast it would be pretty specific (i.e. given the amount of fuel, and power produced, it would be something X kg of fuel will produce 4kw for 7 years or something like that).
Also I'm imagine they would send redundant systems to mars, but considering the flight time to Mars (i.e. measured in years) a reactor that only lasts up to 10 years doesn't seem like enough of a buffer. You'd have to be sending replacements constantly which I can imagine would be expensive to say the least. Though I suppose this is the version 1.0 to which they expect to develop more as time goes on to produce more power, be lighter, last longer, though at the same time, you probably run into some hard physics in that regard that might be hard to finesse or tweak out of.
Prediction, Toronto wins. It is the only non-US option listed, and Jeff Bezos gets to stick it to Donald Trump.
Trump wants Amazon to pay more taxes, pay more to use the US Mail service, accuses Amazon of being a monopoly, and has been highly critical of the Washington Post to which Bezos owns.
Moving the Amazon HQ to Toronto not only thumbs the nose to Trump, but also sends a strong political message.
Of course at the same time, at this scale, if Trump were to extend the olive branch and shuts the heck up about all those things above, Bezos being a businessman might decide to locate the HQ in some red state to which Trump can take credit for creating jobs etc... I'd say the likelihood of that happening is such that the HQ is probably going to be located in Toronto by the end of it.
While kind of the same thing, but rather in 3 dimensions as opposed to just speed, the other thing was the fact that it flew at altitudes not normally transversed by other aircraft.
i.e. not only would said defense need to target and launch said missile, it would also have to climb to the required elevation to intercept which adds another challenge.
As I recall the issue with them was maintenance, and much of that to do with materials science. I remember one of the astounding facts about it was on the ground, it apparently leaked fuel like a sieve. It wasn't until it got up to speed that just the air friction would heat up the metal that it would expand and tighten up. Pretty crazy to think about it.
Just like folks export resource extraction like rare earth mining someplace else because it is dirty.
Just like German, and so I hear California shutting down nuclear power stations, but have zero problem buying the now deficient power from other places that produce it from nuclear power anyway.
It's basically just NIMBY at a global scale.
The insane part is walking around patting each other on the back like a job well done, when really they are just offloading whatever problem it is someplace else.
Squints suspiciously at you...
I'm also originally from there. Where abouts in the valley are you from?
I hope the midwife was being tongue in cheek with that response... It is kind of a primary effect if anything.
If would be like taking a drug to prevent you from giving you cancer, with a side effect of it giving you cancer...
To put a positive spin on it, they also know their system works as it should if a real one was required. I mean that isn't nothing. Obviously they need some safe guards in place. As you say, it is likely a bit of a heads up for public awareness of preparation (or lack thereof currently) as to what to do in such an event (apart from bending over and kissing your ass goodbye, or looking for a good vantage point to watch the final show).
Were I am we've recently gone to metered water a couple years ago and I get weekly reports by email.
About 2-3m cubed a week.
Avg 0.41m cubed a day.
That's for a 2 person household, and I even leave the tub on all the time as a trickle as one of our cats doesn't like drinking out of a bowl...
Google says 0.41 cube meters is 410 liters! Which even divided by two is 205L each! At 2m cubed thats 2000L a week!
Maybe I should turn my tub off...
No its the highest recommended dosage by manufactures. At the recommendation of doctors I have taken dosages even larger than that.
However when I've taken it at such high dosages it was for acute temporary pain (i.e. injury trauma). However once past the hump which is probably measured in days, or perhaps a week, dosage down to more reasonable levels for a few weeks.
Sure if you take it for months at a time it probably isn't so good for you. Though at a guess if you are, likely the alternative isn't great either. I recall asking my doctor if it was really OK to go beyond the recommended maximum dosage on the bottle, and she said that it happens in the military all the time, so long as your young and healthy (outside of your current injury), and don't do it for any long period of time it shouldn't be a problem.
That said, as a guy, it isn't really all that great to hear this kind of news anyway...
"thoughtful and well researched"? Well in part I suppose, he made some cogent points that had some merit. However he also made some pretty wild and unfounded claims with little basis in reality. In addition, even some of the points that we say more based in reality insofar as they were technically correct, are not something that a corporation can legally (he made a point about morality, but that aside) take into consideration in their hiring practices. I'm specifically referring to things such as "work life balance" and paternity leave, because well it is known that women are able to have children (although that does not preclude that men also have the same thing, just in reality it is likely statistically lower impact on occurrences and business). Regardless that isn't something that a corporation can actually act on so it is a pretty moot point.
So while I agree with your assessment that the persons who leaked the information outside of the context it was being used in should have shared the responsibility in the result (i.e. fired), but that doesn't really preclude the fact that while he may have been asked for input into a dialog that doesn't excuse a response of a 10 page "manifesto" that included parts that were inappropriate, out of scope, and generally unacceptable.
He might have a leg to stand on in court depending on the stance (pardon pun) he and his lawyers take, abet a small one. The point of contention I'd be trying to make is if the memo wasn't released beyond what the intended audience was would have he still been fired without the PR onslaught? Perhaps, perhaps not. He could argue that while they might admonish or reprimand him, and perhaps not ask his opinion anymore about such matters, it was of no fault of his own that the memo was released causing the shitstorm that it did (unless he leaked it himself), and thus perhaps (and a big perhaps) not entirely his fault he was fired and thus eligible for some sort of compensation. That said, "conservative views", free speech, is protected, but that doesn't mean it exists in a vacuum outside of consequence.
I am not in the least surprised. This isn't anything malicious, or nefarious. I'm almost certain that this was implemented intentionally for user support purposes.
Users forgot their credentials all the time. If there is no backdoor, all their data is lost. Likely someone ran the risk matrix and determined it was better to have a backdoor that could provide access to users (likely support staff to go in and reset users password), than to have a bunch of angry users losing all their data all the time. Anyone that has worked in IT for any period of time will know that this issue is constant and likely the most numerous reason for support calls.
Further, if you're using a commercial WD Cloud NAS, you aren't holding the nuclear codes or any kind of of industrial secrets in there. At worst, there will be a lot of personal information you might not like out in the wild. Considering a user could presumably also further encrypt their data on said NAS if they really wanted to, if they were really storing something sensitive really puts it back onto the user. I wouldn't be surprised that somewhere buried in the WD cloud EULA all of this is explained and indemnified for WD.
The only thing I find a bit surprising is the half-assed way it was seemingly implemented. "The username is "mydlinkBRionyg" and the password is "abc12345cba"? Really? That is just lazy. They could have at least made the method a bit more difficult or at least came up with a username/password that wasn't something a 8 year old would come up with...
For "fun" many years ago, probably in 1999 if I recall correctly I decided to see if I could install Linux on my grandmothers old laptop her got rid of. If I recall correctly is was a 386 SX and ran at something like 4Mhz or something like that. It may have had 2MB of RAM but I can't really remember. I believe it originally came with GRID OS installed on it, but had since been installed with Dos/Windows perhaps though I vaguely recall using a DOS/Shell on it so perhaps the Windows install died after awhile.
In any case the first problem was that the smallest Linux distro I could find at the time was Damn Small Linux at 50MB, but the internal HD of the laptop was only 20MB so that was out of the question. However I did have an old parallel port ZipDrive collecting dust, and the laptop had a parallel port... So I installed DSL on a 100MB Zip Drive across a parallel port. I booted. And waited. and waited. and waited. and got tired of waiting and went and did something else for the rest of the day. When I checked it the next day, it had successfully booted, and even very helpfully gave a boot time at the end of it, which was measured in like 20+ hours or something ridiculous like that. Probably easier to communicate with the moon.
Anyway it worked however, and once it had booted it could do Linux type things, although each command no matter how simple was literally like communicating with the moon in that there was a lag of several seconds between entering it and anything actually happening on screen. It had good uptime though :) in that it took so long to boot that I just kept it on, however it really was pretty useless other than a proof of concept, and after being left on the one time for an extended period, I eventually just turned it off and never tried booting Linux on it again except for the one time for obvious reasons.
Either way beyond our capabilities to penetrate. Nothing we've ever sent to space has excavated anything beyond cm or perhaps a few metres that I'm aware. Also from what I remember the underwater properties is only postulated at. Perhaps sending a simple drill and a ice fishing line with a probe might be more reasonable. Also I seem to recall that the the "water" properties themselves is also a further postulation, in that it could quite possibly be more of a thick slush underneath to which a "swimming" probe might have trouble navigating... Anyway seems a lot of speculation to send a 10m probe to at this time. I'm all for visiting and trying experiments to ascertain the nature of the hydrology and getting some samples, only they might have to reign in some of their fanciful ideas of what is really reasonable.
Are you sure he had Cdiff? For "years"? I had it for 3 agony filled days. I'm pretty sure if you've had it for any length of time if would kill you. I'm pretty sure with the amount of pain I was in for 3 days I would have killed myself long before that at any rate if it didn't. Perhaps there is a range of severity, but I know with what I had there is no way I would have lasted anywhere as near as that long.
If true, certainly ban it.
I had a similar problem. Had oral surgery, doctor prescribed an antibiotic I've never taken before (I've had penicillin and amoxicillin plenty before without issue). I forget what it was called but I remember him warning me not to ever drink alcohol on it as I would end up vomiting explosively apparently. At any rate it absolutely nuked all the flora and fauna in my gut apparently, and the about the following weekend I got Cdiff (just before Hockey Pool no less). Had it for 3 excruciating days. Was some of the worst suffering I've ever gone though. Went into emergency pretty quickly (typically I would wait at least a week or 2 to see if things resolve themselves), who prescribed another antibiotic which cleared it up almost immediately (like the next day thankfully), and hilariously ginger-ale as apparently even after only a couple of days I was severely dehydrated from essentially living on a toilet.
Anyway it was truly terrible, likely swallowing a half dozen angry scorpions, and I wouldn't wish in on my worst enemy. Anyway anything that contributes to it being a more infectious problem should be done away with, and quickly. I know having had it, if any food production contained something that could potentially dramatically increase your chances of getting Cdiff I certainly wouldn't be buying it...
"I've already completed 2 entire marriages!"... for some reason I translated that into a video game experience and saw the old xbox Achievement Unlocked popup come up in my mind lol!
All out road signs and speed limits are metric however, but the rest is the same. In addition we measure personal height and weight in imperial, though I met a British lad in university that swore the proper term was "stones"... I'll add to additional weird measurements we all use: BTU (British Thermal Units, or how many pints it takes a football hooligan to throw a fit), and HP (not House of Parliament sauce, which is quite tasty, but how many Horse Powers something might have, like the ability to neigh, and turn into a unicorn at night when the moon ifs full).
It all pretty much works, even as a hybrid, though socket sets get pretty large. The largest problem I have is more generational. My dad knows and uses temperature measurements in F, whereas I his son really only understands C. Not sure if that has something to do with when that particular change was adopted or what...
That's because it is gambling addiction, not gaming addiction. The WHO just lost a bunch of credibility in my books. Is gambling a form of gaming? Well yes, but not all gaming is gambling either.
I'd often wondered if I play so much Ability Draft in DOTA2 because I like the random element and drafting the best "hand" so to speak. If I'm not rolling the dice and gambling each game and that is what keeps bringing me back... Or maybe it is just fun and I enjoy it, I dunno.
ARMAGEDDON (1998):
Lev Andropov: Components? American components, Russian components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!
I certainly remember when that was the joke. Hard to believe that was 20 years ago now!
I don't go far enough back to remember a Japan that was considered low quality. However I do recall how South Korea, mostly in terms of auto manufacturing, was considered junk, but have since turned that around. So much so, that getting a used KIA is so cheap because they depreciate so quickly because of the still lingering perception of low quality...
There is a pretty simple equation that has led to wealth inequality. There is also a pretty simple answer. However both are entrenched like ticks that changing either is likely difficult. Most people who are very rich inherit their wealth. Which isn't to say they don't grow it, but as the adage goes, you need money to make money. Most people in politics are very rich, and rich people are disproportionately able to influence political direction. Rule of law is put into place, to keep the status quo or to further enrich those that already are.
Case in point, the new Tax Law rammed through and now in effect will increase the Estate Tax (i.e. how much someone can inherit without paying tax on it), was just increased from 11 MILLION to 22 MILLION dollars. How on gods green earth can any politician reasonably justify said law and explain to the 99% that it is all in their best interests... just crazy.
The fix is to severely limit the estate tax (for an extended period of time), and to do that you will need to remove money from the political system (i.e. spending limitations, donation limits, severe limitations on both lobbying, and post political work). Anyway good luck with that, it is unfortunately a tale as old as time, which provided the 99% are relatively comfortable and cowed, will continue.
Yeah that was one of my beefs, but from more of a continuity perspective. I liked it from the "it looked cool" perspective I suppose.
i.e. they are just figuring out after 8 movies (and how many years of FTL space travel), that you can just light speed into someone to destroy them? Why doesn't everyone do that all the time? Why not do that with the previous death stars/death planet things? Where are all the FTL torpedoes? Shouldn't there be a whole gamete of FTL weapons (and counter measures) if one can so easily use it that way? Anyway while it was certainly cool looking, it made no sense.
What they should have done is have the general somehow explain with some technical mumbo gumbo and calculations that trying to hit another ship in the same place at FTL speed is a million to one chance (or something really high at least), making the tactic unwise but something perhaps only someone truly desprete would attempt, and she just got really really lucky... Or have Leia somehow force magic nudge it into place or something. I don't know, anything to make it a unique event that can't be replicated (explaining why it isn't used all the time). I mean they lost how many ships on that stupid bombing run, just take one ship and slap a stupid suicide droid in it and call it a fracking day.
Well they banned it much like Germany "banned" Nuclear power. They will just import it from other countries.
You are surprised that The White House isn't trustworthy? I mean sure Trump takes it to next level shit, but pretty much all politicians that have been in that house have not been all that trustworthy... I mean there have been some pretty big ones in recent history. Bush, Nixon, Clinton, Regan, and I could probably list just about every single one of both political stripes. Maybe not Carter, he seems like a decent fellow, but then again I don't know a lot about him either.
Only the magnitude is much higher.
During the dotcom, it was the pump and dumps getting dozens of millions of dollars, or in a few semi-legit cases that eventually went bust, hundreds of millions of dollars. It wasn't all that long ago...
This company that no one heard of before today is suddenly work 7,000 million dollars (7 Billion)? Of what? How? Crazy. There are whole established industries that aren't worth that.
This whole thing is blowing my mind. I have a feeling it is going to get bigger, maybe even much bigger, and people are going to start really looking around nervously about what the end result will be, that will inevitably be what we all think it is going to be, but may have a lot of unanticipated economic fallout.
A simple question. Where is that 7 Billion dollars coming from? Only private investors? What happens if the Banks that are all poo pooing the whole idea are greedily gobbling up as much crypo coin as they can get their grubby little hands on? Sound familiar?
It's sad but I might steal this joke.