Has there ever been another TV show (in any genre) that ended unexpectedly with the villain getting all six main "goodies", plus the eponymous hero, shot dead in the last 30 seconds of the last show? That ending was absolutely extraordinary.
I must say the practice of picking your Slashdot username from cheesy British science fiction TV of the 70s is totally lame, and betrays a pathetic obsession with nostalgia at the expense of personal development.
Also, Arlen was by far the sexiest female character in the whole show. A lot of women on the B7 slash fanfic list I accidentally ended up subscribed to for a while had different ideas about the most attractive characters on the show, though. Not to mention leather trousers...
Knol? Sounds more like Cyc to me. Hhmmm,.. if consciousness is computable, can the task be distributed to a Mechanical Turk? (*strokes chin thoughtfully)
. They are a bit worried about our ability to travel through time, as demonstrated by our having received technology from our future from something called "The Federation", bah humbug! Orac was developed by an independent scientist and the Liberator was the product of an alien civilisation. The Federation only produced instruments of oppression -- laser probes, CCTV up trees, self-healing alarm circuits and the like.
On a slightly related note, here's the physics of supersonic solar plasma flows, the termination shock, the heliopause and Voyager, all demonstrated in your kitchen sink. Superb stuff courtesy of The Planetary Society. "Really baked my noodle" - Satisfied customer.
The summary's right - Distributed Proofreaders was well before SETI and, having contributed to both, I can confidently state the my mental cycles contribution to PGDP was FAR more personally satisfying than the hours spent staring at SETI@Home's admittedly hypnotic display chugging away.
Sorry, you need to re-write your post in the past tense. The USA could have invested all that money in wind power, etc etc. If you read the business section you may have noticed that there's a bit of a shortage of cash going around. This is because the Asian central banks have suddenly stopped believing in America's ability to pay back the trillions of dollars of debt. (Factoid of the day: US domestic mortage debt was $4.4 trillion in 2000. It's was almost 10 trillion in 2006, the most recent numbers I've seen. Say it quickly and it doesn't sound much... (of course domestic mortgage debt is only one component, on top of financial debt, personal credit debt, the national budget deficit and the trade deficit.) Sorry America, you missed your chance to transcend the inherent limitations of empire, thanks for playing and goodnight.
A completely idiotoc government in the 70s decided they colud lower taxes ang gain votes if they sold off basically ALL of the north sea oil and gas to foreign interests. Complete and utter bollocks, on toast, with brass knobs on the top.
...with hilarious consequences as your genset tries to leap through the wall of your power station. Anyone got a reference? I don't know the field well enough to know the search terms.
And the fact that around 60% of the UK population is hungover or drunk most days -- do you want the hungover guy, or the still slightly drunk guy as your site safety engineer?
Something (innate prejudice perhaps?) tells me you're a North American who worked in the UK and was amazed by the Friday pub lunches and the after work sessions, er, down the pub? (Am I close?) Listen, we take our alcohol seriously. If it was this cold wet and miserable where you live, you might be a little more charitable!
And anyway, what's so bad about starting the day still slightly drunk? If you know a better way to cope with an annual review, I'd like to hear it.
Heh, I'm Liberal Democrat as well (note to Americans: that really is the name of the third party in the UK; we usually get 20-25% or so of the national vote.) I too remember "before Thatcher". Whilst you're right that the country was pretty fucked in 1979, what I can never forgive that wretched creature for is her insufferable air of smug superiority whilst she was clearly revelling in every opportunity to crush the working class and institute a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (and I mean that in the worst possible sense with it's connotations of petty-minded bigotry, snobbery and vindictiveness towards the working class.
Thatcher is undoubtedly the most hated politician ever here in the UK; sadly, there are a lot more Daily Mail readers who think she's a (capital G) Great Briton. Personally I like Declan McManus' take on her... still fresh after almost 20 years:)
I guarantee the UK plant, at least, is designed to be accessible by boat rather than helicopter. (TBH I'd be surprised if it were otherwise anywhere else, have you got a reference for that claim?)
You haven't been round the spam-fighting community much, have you... I have to tell you that those are only half-joking. Your objection is one I've seen before (eg on the Oregon tidal system story) so I thought it worth pointing out that fishing interests are really not a problem over here.
I have news for you dear boy... the UK planning system for major stategic projects is being "streamlined" precisely because of farces like the Hinkley Point PWR planning enquiries and the collapse of the road building programme in the early 90s in the face not of a bunch of crusties up trees, but by the costs involved in a full planning enquiry to which FotE, Greenpeace, CPRE etc would all be represented and would all put up very strong experts with well researched evidence. Even if the locals at the existing sites *didn't* find that actually they LIKE how they look[1], the planning permissions will be rammed through by our glorious leader, Comrade Bean.
[1] See eg. the biggest existing off-shore farm in the UK, half a mile off the coast at Yarmouth, which is very visible but locally uncontroversial now it's running.)
Incidentally, the headline's wrong. It's not "UK wants huge expansion..." it's "UK *announces* huge expansion..." . This is not a proposal or a concept plan, this is a solid, funded, project and it WILL be built.
No, it won't. The North Sea is pretty much fished out, and a combination of "no fish" and draconian quota restrictions brought in to try to help the remainder to recover has lead to there being very few commercial fishing fleet left in the UK. The remaining couple of dozen of inshore trawlers don't exactly have the government in their back pockets.
Slashdot Mirror
There were a few fairly deep science / technology injokes and references hidden away as well. Servalan? Server / LAN? Coincidence? I don't think so.
Has there ever been another TV show (in any genre) that ended unexpectedly with the villain getting all six main "goodies", plus the eponymous hero, shot dead in the last 30 seconds of the last show? That ending was absolutely extraordinary.
Also, Arlen was by far the sexiest female character in the whole show. A lot of women on the B7 slash fanfic list I accidentally ended up subscribed to for a while had different ideas about the most attractive characters on the show, though. Not to mention leather trousers...
Only by mouth-breathers.
Knol? Sounds more like Cyc to me. Hhmmm,.. if consciousness is computable, can the task be distributed to a Mechanical Turk? (*strokes chin thoughtfully)
wow, the missing link between Bill Hicks, Nagel, and Dennett -- cool :)
On a slightly related note, here's the physics of supersonic solar plasma flows, the termination shock, the heliopause and Voyager, all demonstrated in your kitchen sink. Superb stuff courtesy of The Planetary Society. "Really baked my noodle" - Satisfied customer.
Here's Tom with the weather.
The summary's right - Distributed Proofreaders was well before SETI and, having contributed to both, I can confidently state the my mental cycles contribution to PGDP was FAR more personally satisfying than the hours spent staring at SETI@Home's admittedly hypnotic display chugging away.
Sorry, you need to re-write your post in the past tense. The USA could have invested all that money in wind power, etc etc. If you read the business section you may have noticed that there's a bit of a shortage of cash going around. This is because the Asian central banks have suddenly stopped believing in America's ability to pay back the trillions of dollars of debt. (Factoid of the day: US domestic mortage debt was $4.4 trillion in 2000. It's was almost 10 trillion in 2006, the most recent numbers I've seen. Say it quickly and it doesn't sound much... (of course domestic mortgage debt is only one component, on top of financial debt, personal credit debt, the national budget deficit and the trade deficit.) Sorry America, you missed your chance to transcend the inherent limitations of empire, thanks for playing and goodnight.
Yeah, only for like the last five or six decades or so. (to OP) You from Kansas, son?
Er, you do realise that we had a bit of a revolution thingy and sort of chopped the king's head off because he insisted on his divine right to rule (or rather to over-rule parliament)? Why yes, this was 150 years before the French, thanks for asking! :)
...with hilarious consequences as your genset tries to leap through the wall of your power station. Anyone got a reference? I don't know the field well enough to know the search terms.
Something (innate prejudice perhaps?) tells me you're a North American who worked in the UK and was amazed by the Friday pub lunches and the after work sessions, er, down the pub? (Am I close?) Listen, we take our alcohol seriously. If it was this cold wet and miserable where you live, you might be a little more charitable!
And anyway, what's so bad about starting the day still slightly drunk? If you know a better way to cope with an annual review, I'd like to hear it.
Heh, I'm Liberal Democrat as well (note to Americans: that really is the name of the third party in the UK; we usually get 20-25% or so of the national vote.) I too remember "before Thatcher". Whilst you're right that the country was pretty fucked in 1979, what I can never forgive that wretched creature for is her insufferable air of smug superiority whilst she was clearly revelling in every opportunity to crush the working class and institute a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (and I mean that in the worst possible sense with it's connotations of petty-minded bigotry, snobbery and vindictiveness towards the working class.
Thatcher is undoubtedly the most hated politician ever here in the UK; sadly, there are a lot more Daily Mail readers who think she's a (capital G) Great Briton. Personally I like Declan McManus' take on her... still fresh after almost 20 years :)
I guarantee the UK plant, at least, is designed to be accessible by boat rather than helicopter. (TBH I'd be surprised if it were otherwise anywhere else, have you got a reference for that claim?)
You haven't been round the spam-fighting community much, have you... I have to tell you that those are only half-joking. Your objection is one I've seen before (eg on the Oregon tidal system story) so I thought it worth pointing out that fishing interests are really not a problem over here.
[1] See eg. the biggest existing off-shore farm in the UK, half a mile off the coast at Yarmouth, which is very visible but locally uncontroversial now it's running.)
Incidentally, the headline's wrong. It's not "UK wants huge expansion..." it's "UK *announces* huge expansion..." . This is not a proposal or a concept plan, this is a solid, funded, project and it WILL be built.
No, it won't. The North Sea is pretty much fished out, and a combination of "no fish" and draconian quota restrictions brought in to try to help the remainder to recover has lead to there being very few commercial fishing fleet left in the UK. The remaining couple of dozen of inshore trawlers don't exactly have the government in their back pockets.
Since I submitted the story on Sunday, they've actually made the announcement (on Sunday, it was just being heavily trailed in the press.)