I sincerely want to understand your position. I doubt this is what you mean, but it seems like you're saying that "government assisted extortion" is okay, as long as it's economical. Could you clarify a bit further for me?
Can you elaborate a bit on how this is better than the current licensing scheme? Perhaps there would be some economy of scale, giving the public a better overall price. But it's even less fair in the sense that the cost would have to be borne equally (as tax burden) by someone who buys many ATSC tuners and someone who buys none!
This is nothing more than government assisted extortion.
But buying patents with Federal funds is preferable?
As for "stepping away", that's a fine defense against snipers. Until they launch a parachute flare. Or start firing machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars, or call in any indirect fire on your position. At which point you're going to have to unass the AO, which probably invalidates the message that gave away your position in the first place.
When out-gunned, there's just no substitute for maintaining cover and concealment.
Sure, not every story is profoundly allegorical. But all writers are humans, and it's impossible to write about anything other than human concerns. They are frequently projected on non-human characters for various reasons.
So, not every non-human character is intentionally and consciously written to illuminate the human condition, but they all necessarily reflect it.
The question utterly misses the point. It isn't about Science. It's about our fears. Frankenstein (in any of its incarnations) isn't about what's possible or likely, it's about our responsibility for what we create.
This is Freshman English stuff. Every story, no matter how many tentacled creatures, or bumpy-foreheaded aliens, or killer machines, or whatever are in it, is about us.
They're not kidding when they say these are therapeutic. I just clubbed the shit out of a half-a-dozen of these things, and I haven't felt this good since I got back from the Arctic!
Another good strategy is to use a fall sequence consisting of several movements, so the falling body has several points of contact with the ground, spreading the energy of the impact over a large number of joints, rather than taking it all in one disastrous crunch.
Get your head out of your fourth point of contact and send 'em to Airborne School. All the way, Airborne!
The "mass pound" and "weight pound" may be equal at sea level in a certain location or whatever, but probably not equal at any other gravitational potential
There's no "may" about it. For the Math to work they can only be equal at exactly 1G. The thing is, we never really use the "weight pound" in practice. I mean, if someone asks you what you weigh do you ask for a reference altitude (or gravitational force)? Absurd.
Put it this weigh (yuk-yuk), if you want to buy a pound of bananas, are you looking for half a kilo of bananas? Or four and a half newtons of bananas?
Did you click the link? No one uses slugs. Pounds are commonly used to express mass as well as force (weight).
Since there is a mass version of the pound, and it is defined in terms of kilos the conversions actually work perfectly in any (or no) gravitational field. (Though the conversion factor is exactly 2.20462262, not 2.2.)
Seriously, click the link.
Don't get me wrong in all of this. I advocate the metric system. But I don't understand the seemingly willful misunderstanding of the modern imperial system.
That's not, in fact, what was going on. The voice-over wasn't conceived until after the film was shot.
Maybe we can assume that more breathing room was left in the scenes in the theatrical cut to allow for the after-the-fact voice-over, but I think Ridley Scott is an adequately skilled and conscientious director not to leave all that air in the scenes when he re-cut (or in the first cut, before the voice-over) if it wasn't for a purpose beyond the voice-over.
Blade Runner certainly wasn't paced the same way Minority Report was. I think that Blade Runner is the better film. But that's just my opinion. I thought that Benjamin Button would have been twice as good if forty more minutes of it had ended up on the floor. It's all very subjective.
You probably saw the theatrical version of Blade Runner. Give one of the director's cuts a look. The lack of studio-mandated voice-over certainly makes the film more moody and atmospheric.
Minority Report was a decent movie, but wasn't based on the short-story beyond the kernel of the idea.
Slashdot Mirror
I sincerely want to understand your position. I doubt this is what you mean, but it seems like you're saying that "government assisted extortion" is okay, as long as it's economical. Could you clarify a bit further for me?
Thanks,
Peter
Can you elaborate a bit on how this is better than the current licensing scheme? Perhaps there would be some economy of scale, giving the public a better overall price. But it's even less fair in the sense that the cost would have to be borne equally (as tax burden) by someone who buys many ATSC tuners and someone who buys none!
But buying patents with Federal funds is preferable?
-Peter
I must have had K.P. on spelling day.
As for "stepping away", that's a fine defense against snipers. Until they launch a parachute flare. Or start firing machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars, or call in any indirect fire on your position. At which point you're going to have to unass the AO, which probably invalidates the message that gave away your position in the first place.
When out-gunned, there's just no substitute for maintaining cover and concealment.
-Peter
Step 1, smoke a cigarette under a poncho. Step 2, light an "infofuse". Step 3, get shot in the face.
My Drill Sargent demonstrated how easy it is to spot someone smoking in the dark.
Is a crank-powered radio really out of the question? I mean, it would even work during the day.
-Peter
Sure, not every story is profoundly allegorical. But all writers are humans, and it's impossible to write about anything other than human concerns. They are frequently projected on non-human characters for various reasons.
So, not every non-human character is intentionally and consciously written to illuminate the human condition, but they all necessarily reflect it.
-Peter
I'm just about to head out to see it.
The question utterly misses the point. It isn't about Science. It's about our fears. Frankenstein (in any of its incarnations) isn't about what's possible or likely, it's about our responsibility for what we create.
This is Freshman English stuff. Every story, no matter how many tentacled creatures, or bumpy-foreheaded aliens, or killer machines, or whatever are in it, is about us.
-Peter
There's a straightforward fix for that: Enlist.
-Peter
They're not kidding when they say these are therapeutic. I just clubbed the shit out of a half-a-dozen of these things, and I haven't felt this good since I got back from the Arctic!
-Peter
Get your head out of your fourth point of contact and send 'em to Airborne School. All the way, Airborne!
-Peter
Well, let's say this twinkie represents the normal size of an external hard drive in the Clinton era . . .
That's a big twinkie.
-Peter
Well played, sir.
-Peter
So this is an argument between Mr. Buckmaster and Mr. McMaster?
So this is all just a bunch of Master-debating?
-Peter
It's a crying shame that prudishness amongst politicians is the last remaining defense of our privacy.
-Peter
Will it support ligatures on my nine-pin printer? I mean, seriously, this isn't a hot new feature, this is long, long overdue.
-Peter
Isn't this precisely the argument that you're trying to counter?
-Peter
Stone is the plural of the unit of weight, stone.
Fourteen. But you knew that.
-Peter
There's no question that it's a kludge.
There's no "may" about it. For the Math to work they can only be equal at exactly 1G. The thing is, we never really use the "weight pound" in practice. I mean, if someone asks you what you weigh do you ask for a reference altitude (or gravitational force)? Absurd.
Put it this weigh (yuk-yuk), if you want to buy a pound of bananas, are you looking for half a kilo of bananas? Or four and a half newtons of bananas?
Always glad to rise above the hoi polloi ;-)
-Peter
Did you click the link? No one uses slugs. Pounds are commonly used to express mass as well as force (weight).
Since there is a mass version of the pound, and it is defined in terms of kilos the conversions actually work perfectly in any (or no) gravitational field. (Though the conversion factor is exactly 2.20462262, not 2.2.)
Seriously, click the link.
Don't get me wrong in all of this. I advocate the metric system. But I don't understand the seemingly willful misunderstanding of the modern imperial system.
-Peter
Um, it's the pound. Doesn't everyone know that? 2.2 lbs to the kilo.
While weight certainly means the force created between two masses due to gravity, it is almost always used interchangeably with mass in practice.
-Peter
Nom nom. Ginetic cuzin haz a flavor.
-Peter
Only in France would a Scientist subvert his own work due to culinary objections!
-Peter
I mean, would it fucking kill you to make YUI a hyper-link in the summary?
-Peter
That's not, in fact, what was going on. The voice-over wasn't conceived until after the film was shot.
Maybe we can assume that more breathing room was left in the scenes in the theatrical cut to allow for the after-the-fact voice-over, but I think Ridley Scott is an adequately skilled and conscientious director not to leave all that air in the scenes when he re-cut (or in the first cut, before the voice-over) if it wasn't for a purpose beyond the voice-over.
Blade Runner certainly wasn't paced the same way Minority Report was. I think that Blade Runner is the better film. But that's just my opinion. I thought that Benjamin Button would have been twice as good if forty more minutes of it had ended up on the floor. It's all very subjective.
-Peter
You probably saw the theatrical version of Blade Runner. Give one of the director's cuts a look. The lack of studio-mandated voice-over certainly makes the film more moody and atmospheric.
Minority Report was a decent movie, but wasn't based on the short-story beyond the kernel of the idea.
Next and Paycheck were both pretty craptastic.
-Peter
Please send any information or complaints relating to this message to SRJCAdmissionsAndRecords@hutnick.com.
I'm not kidding.
-Peter