I like that, actually. It made me laugh, pleasantly.
As I understand it, his statement can be bolstered by Buddhist teachings that we all have the Buddha essence. Whether we practice it or not, we all have the capability to eventually become not just A Buddha, but THE Buddha. It's just a matter of attaining true enlightenment. And, enlightenment is something that is VERY hard for most of us to attain, since we are suffer various afflictions: attachment, revenge, lust, greed, and more, keeping us in the birth-death-rebirth cycle until we've had enough.
To me, I think more people could or ought to embrace reincarnation (and the chance to redeem oneself (recall that Cylon regeneration and contemporary Buddhist reincarnation are themes we see in BSG--- I think many Buddhists scholars and monks might actually "attach" to BSG on those themes alone...) and hopefully LEARN and repent over multiple lifetimes than doggedly accept that ALL WE GET IS ONE SHOT. Hell, 2 months, 5 years, 75 years or 100 years is simply NOT enough time to learn to avoid Hell or Purgatory. And, if there is no reincarnation, then why do I merit gaining access to Heaven (the Christian or other heaven) if I've committed adultery, fornication, theft, murder, slander, libel, acts of greed, selfishness, and callously watched MILLIONS die because I was too self-absorbed and too chickenshit to slay corrupt politicians, elite and ultra wealthy at the root of the problem?
By NO means am I well-enlightened. But, BSG and Buddhism are far more appealing to me than most anything I can see on the screen or do on the weekends...
Just before snapping the infant's neck she said, "You won't have to worry much longer...", to which the baby's mother became uncomfortable but carelessly turned her back on Caprica 6.
But, that shriek was blood-curdling. The mood music the BSG team uses is A-J SPOT ON. Whether it's sorrow, triumph, charging to the fight, or being nose-bloodied, the music scores are awesome.
Humor (meant for the audience to consume) is right on, too. Recall when E.T. was an unknown, and Baltar was given conflicting orders by both Adama and Rosalind to test this blood sample, but neither told the other they were manipulating Baltar. It was funny when they two then (or earlier) suggested the other be tested FIRST. I won't spoil that. You just have to see it.
Another is later in Season 2 (I think, after Thrace has her cane) when Kara walks in on Baltar in his hip-grind (oh, yes, ohhh, yess) moment in the lab... Definitely, the major stations would cut that scene.
I liked when Cain and Adama battled over Adama's demanding the return of Agathon and Tyrol. It's so amazing how we can love Sharon, see others despise her, and have these two kill that prick "Cylon Interrogator" Lieutenant. I'd have belted/bolted his ass, too. There are some lines you don't cross.
I think the BSG handling of Human vs. Cylon/ God's hand vs. Man's Hand is expertly played. After all, just how sure can WE be that we are not a run-amok experiment produced by some advanced beings who have yet to come check up on us. "God" (in my mind, being an "absentee landlord/non-interventionist/distant observer"), for all we know, will allow humans to evolve to the point of creating sentient beings and then, 500 years from now, our descendants will look back at sci-fi and pity us poor, ignorant, selfish, stupid, human-above-all-beings arguments.
No human alive can prove having died and returned, so no human alive can posses (or is withholding) proof that "we are it."
"Cuba has the "same effect on U.S. administrations that the full moon has on a werewolf.""
"What is the likelihood that the United States and Cuba will resume diplomatic relations?
Given the range of issues dividing the two countries, experts say the possibility of normalization remains distant. "We don't use that language [normalization] anymore because the relationship is so toxic," Sweig says. Wayne Smith, director of the Cuba program at the Center for International Policy, says Cuba has the "same effect on U.S. administrations that the full moon has on a werewolf.""
i guess Cuba is the (wolfs) bane of the US' political existence... and i see the current regime is a source of angst for many Cubans outside the country. However, i will again assert that oppressing or internationally rebuking a nation's government (and spilling this over to its people) is not the way to advance a nation out of poverty and domestic oppression.
Cuba a few tons of clones Cisco gear, some slew of Linux servers, a fat pipe into the Internet, and pay off the Cuban government to open up.
But, do it in some diplomatic Asian way that might gain inroads into Cuba. Apparently, the US/Western ways must suck pretty bad. SOME government SOMEwhere needs to overtly defy the US. Externally oppressing Cuban citizens and denying US citizens visitation of Cuba is plain evil and heinous. It's just a matter of time before Cuba opens up. i just think their elite don't want history to show that the *USA* forced them to open.
China, are you LISTENING? Maybe Medvedev (and Putin) might take lead on this. Surely, the rest of the world has balls to stand up against this. Would be ironic, though, to see some combination of China and Russia convincing Cuba (through aid packages) to just knock off the current situation and in a few years be where they ought to be as if no embargoes ever happened.
i mean, REALLY, what threat has Cuba herSELF been to the US? None. She's been an active symbol of rejection of the US (to a great extent), survived coup plans orchestrated by the US, and other than refugees, has yet to launch some military attack upon the US. Drugs and other things might be issues, but it's not as if Cuba has a physical border to the US.
i'd like to see some world or NGO body once and for all defy the US and just SETTLE this matter without coups, assassinations, economic oppression or destabilization...
This is just insulting political BULLSHIT, and it's embarrassing and it just one more reason to make 'merkuns question whether travel with a US passport it the wisest or safest thing to do. After all, i've met in Japan people from various countries who had US passports AND multiple others, apparently valid, because they were from countries that permitted dual/multiple citizenship. Their countries aren't so arrogant or stupid as to assume that forcing someone to swear allegiance to ONE country makes them less likely to turn on their "new" country. Some of these people were from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and places in Europe. This was in 2004. i don't know what has happened between then and now. Of course, i'd be remiss to suggest that these people use their passports solely to not be fingered AS american citizens. Some do it to skirt around visa time frames.
Why? Well, as a non-US citizen or by entering Japan with a NON-US passport (and not being on a list of terrorist nations, unfriendly nations, or nations that might swamp Japan with foreigners looking to squat there), a visitor from the "right nations" can enter Japan on a Visitor Visa for not 90 days (as from the US) but for 180 days. Not only THAT, such visitors can WORK part time to subsidize their tourism/stay. From the US? Forget it. You can visit for 90 days, but are NOT legally permitted to work in Japan unless some company or individual puts up a bond or sponsorship and prepares the entry paperwork for obtaining a visa stamp.
Anyway, criminalizing a US citizen visit to Cuba is just obsequious, stupid, asinine, and vindictive. Someone should try again to fast-track (non-violently) Cuba's state status and maybe embargo the US for embargoing Cuba -- unless Cuba and the US are technically in a state of war. The US normalized with Vietnam, has trade status with China (a nation vastly superior to Cuba and a nation which the US is constantly measuring defense budgets against, but not against Cuba -- not on THAT scale...), and other nations from which the US incurred civilian and military deaths vastly greater than anything Cuba could have done to the US. Besides, is CUBA conducting technology-based infrastructure warfare upon the US? USA, grow up.
No, i don't expect that this *alone* would level the playing field, but it would be yet one more "feature" to help lessen the grip of office on the market.
See, sometimes people get stress or decay or other data in spreadsheets. Maybe they can't *yet* or don't want to use MathCAD or other high-end (read "expensive") tools for initial estimations of structures. But, if they could do ad-hoc analysis (nothing formal, just ad-hoc) and be able to export it to CAD packages, it could possibly add another dynamic to client-side apps such as the various competing CAD packages and the few spreadsheet apps.
As an aside about how spreadsheet features enhancements might help those wanting to escape ms office.
But, i happen to use CAD and have to deal with various things, one among them (which i am not really skilled at) being counting and inventorying symbols on a drawing. I'd prefer to use an external database, not leave it totally up to the CAD software. Sure, the CAD SW can to a LOT, but when it comes to off-line analysis of symbols that are not only COUNTED but also have to be allocated to specific places in a drawing (not just x,y,z, but maybe along arbitrary places which need special identifiers not set up in the CAD facility...)
However, we all know that since AutoCAD is the dominant CAD package, and they as yet have no interest in helping people wean off of windows if that is a local interest, then people will have to consider:
But, back to 3D engines. i'm not advocating adding 3-D *gaming* to spreadsheets. Rather, i'm looking to see if there is feasibility in generating 3-D shapes based on cell data. For instance, let's say you're analyzing corrosion of a building, a ship, a car, an underground utility, whatever... You collect dimensions, mass, environmental and other information. Your spreadsheet has it in numbers, but you want to show your boss the visual impact of the data. Your current spreadsheet choices are to possibly use Excel, and use conditional formatting, but you only get cell data -- unless you figure out the aforementioned 3D engine. If that tool takes off for ad-hoc analysis and helps people avoid expensive or overkill high-end math packages, then great. But, even tho OO.o and SO are growing daily, at SOME point, there will be a need for this. Maybe if I dig around in www.linux.org in spreadsheets or other folders something *might* be present...
the firehose that knowledgeable people offer up whether Star Office or OpenOffice.org can do similar feats. I realize that eventually SOMEone will figure out how to do it, but since this is not a time-critical article (no expiration date) it would be nice if Slash's submission engine had a "references/external interesting and relevant" sites/alternative products" field/array to encourage submitters to balance things out -- if references and alternatives are indeed available. Otherwise, we might not as quickly inform others that OO.o and SO can or cannot do these things. Just my opinion.
I mean, REALLY, (to be honest about my position) why bolster Excel any more than necessary when Open Source and Linux/FreeBSD/*nix platforms are slowed mainly *because* ms office is so dominant? Any and every chance to level the playing field should be seized, exploited, and disseminated.
What i like about Firefox's crash recovery is that it not only works during a crash, but when i task-kill it to recover RAM when AutoCAD drawings are huge or print spooling is dragging.
When it recovers my tabs (20+ in one instance for personal sites and 20+ tabs in another FF instance for work-related sites) and two instances of FF, it makes me feel good.
Someone questioned IE8 beta's design origins. That XP and 2K STILL (seemingly) have no patch to enable the sysadmin to come along and lock the current user and do some admin tasks without killing the apps/processes in play, and no apparent ability to restore the complete prior crashed or saved session, it makes me feel very good that i use KDE.
It appears to me that even in vista there is no memory of previous sessions to open up or restore all apps from the previous session. Why is this. Are they afraid it will give ammunition to Open Source to counter ms' dubious patent infringement threats?
Back to browsers: i LIKE Flock, but found it crashes when some myspace profiles start up the music applet. Even clicking on STOP loading in the browser menu and on the music applet is not enough to stop the crash. Killing the tab on restore previous session does work, as a workaround. i LIKE FF, and wish it would use the KDE file exploring/management widgets to which I've become so attached. i can't stand that older file display interface. i LIKE KDE. Nautilus it interesting, but i'm mostly in KDE or minimal interfaces.
(lower-casing/deprecation of "I" and "I'm" intentional; many other languages do not arrogantly case-place the self of the speaker above the listener or observer-- even though other languages tend to have separate words (honorific and plain/familiar) for the western/Latin "I"). So, it is my mission to start a movement to deprecate the importance of "I" and force it to "i"...
Personally, when I was in uniform and when I was taken in hand for criticizing a sitting president (84-88, and this happened around 86) I was told (or probably given an implied order) to RESPECT THE MAN IN OFFICE. To hell with that. If an idiot or dunce is in office, call a spade a spade. But, if fools someday (or in the past) take/took office, it would be tragic to not challenge that. I take GREAT offence at being told to unwaveringly GIVE my support for *the president*. If ANY president kills for power or destabilizes governments for control and so on, and tries to assign to that act my name... well, screw that, and SCREW HIM/HER. I have a bigger world view, and it doesn't allow for individual countries to call the shots for all the rest. EVER.
Well, unless you're in Russia. But, hey, even in Russia today, SOME permission is allowed to criticize the government. It just might not get printed.
Well, I'm going to chime in on Corea/Korea, since it's been brought up...
The US is just in a near-conniption fit that the North has not collapsed, imploded, or exploded. It's a major embarrassment that multiple US administrations just ineptly cannot figure out how to have state-to-state talks with the North and get out of the way of confederation leading to reunification. Don't like MY perception? Read...on
Check out "Korean Endgame" by Selig S. Harrison...
The first two chapters show how ignorant the US can be when it comes to taking sides and coercing what it thinks are its client states (and is instead manipulated by the South, as was Russia by the North), yet (the US) ends up delaying reunification because if later finds it NEEDS and DESIRES a 'clear and present danger' of sorts in order to justify $42B a year in deployed US military assets around Asia, and $2B a year going directly to the South.
The South recently offered citizenship to people of the North. The YOUTH of the South probably care less about politics, but wealthy in the loop with military and economic assets at risk don't want to be besieged nor bothered by a massive influx of poor Northerners. In general, though, many if not most Koreans (North and South are torn by the division instigated by by Kim Song Il, after duping Stalin and getting assent from China.
The US *claims* it wants to aid Korea Unify, but so far it mostly has obstructed or ineptly carried out talks, bullied the North, and placated the South, enable the South to experience as little pain as possible in the march toward confederation. The North expected (rightfully) confederation and a formal declaration of cessation of hostilities, but the US botched things imposing its OWN view on BOTH Koreas. However, Seoul, for its part, never signed the armistice...
Now, what is going on is the Russians no longer sell much of anything military to the North, but is instead selling to the South and to others. The upshot is that the NK "regime"/government/Workers' Party isn't likely to go out with a bang. It'll just muddle along, and reunification (50% thanks to the US) will happen DECADES later than it could have or should have.
For what it's worth, i feel sorry for BOTH halves of Korea and i hope history takes in hand all those who did their bit to undermine and humiliate a great people, and wrought them great humiliation.
i hope the Coreas reunify SOON (less than 10 years). I hope they shift to indigenous local partners of the regional defense, and I hope they PROVE to Japan that a unified Corea purged of US occupation is NOT a threat to the Japanese peoples. i don't think there will be any wars unless puppeteers from afar instigate things.
WHEN is this country going to f*king LEARN!!!???? You DO NOT successfully, peacefully advance rogue countries by ostracising them. Even just recently, Cuba signed on to Human Rights covenants/laws now that Fidel Castro turned power over to his brother.
There are "Americans" who have suffering relatives IN Cuba, (I believe there are permissions with limits on how much US citizens can send annually to Cuba), and it ought to be criminal to expect people to put on a uniform to potentially go and kill or threaten to kill relatives in OR outside the country.
I think the US government and some wealthy are just royally pissed that Fidel, like Kim Jong-Il, didn't just 'vanish' or 'die". Castro outlived MULTIPLE US presidents... must be an embarrassment to the USA...
Probably some dim-wit bean counter decided that it wasn't worth it to develop a Flash version of it. ALL the games out there in Flash... you gotta wonder what is going on in the minds of these execs and their lackeys lacking vision.
Would it have really been THAT hard, Mattel/Hasbro?
Now, i can imagine them strong-arming Facebook to divert the weekly $25,000 take. But, maybe, out of spite, the advertisers of Scrabulous should terminate their advertising contracts and poison the well if Hasbro/Mattel come on like gangbusters. They had ALL these years (what, 2 or 3, or 4?) to protect "their" "trademark" and apparently did not aggressively do so. SO, they probably will be found to have allowed dilution (or whatever the legal term is), abandonment, and disregard for shareholder interests.
Those Scrabulous brothers should rename it to Sclaburous, or Scabo, or something. Now, maybe "scabo" might be problematic:
But, since it appears "sclaburous" is not in Google, i confer it to the Scabulous Brothers. If anyone else is using it, i will deliberately use it and dilute it any and every printed chance i get. And, if corporations pick it up, to hell with them. i made up the word, and if the public use of it by me or by others is threatened, i will keep pushing it. Try to issue any cease and desist... you WILL regret it.
Generally, I would pick on first class, thoughtlessly, but when you think about it, doesn't first class USUALLY have only 2-seats abreast, vice 3, on each side of the aisle? And, in first class, the rows are shorter, meaning that there is still less of a chance that 1st class pax are going to hold things up TOO much.
What the damned airlines need to do is load pax at TWO ends of the plane, OR...
IN the MIDDLE, but file pax in by area, but fire-fighter-aboard-ship style: ZIPPER FASHION.
Forward area pax file in on that side of the jetway, aft area pax file in on THAT side of the jetway. As you enter the aircraft, peel off and head in your designated direction.
Forward-most pax file in first, aft-most next, and middle-area pax last. Do the revers for exit, unless the gateway provides two jetways, either fore and aft, or one each side of the fuselage. But, the damned airports don't want to factor this into long-term costs, feasible security designs, etc. Or, maybe they DID, but rejected it in favor of the status quo, as in maybe thee airlines want to save on door maintenance costs?
"Especially when we're talking about short commuter flights, it's a short flight -- you don't care which seat you have. You do care how long you sit without moving -- you know, just like a bus."
Well, depending on the blade failure rate of the turbo prop you're on, you MIGHT not want to be near the blades. I was told this around 1995, and I was glad engine failure rates were really, really low. As I understood, there was at least (or, probably) one incident where blades entered the cabin and maimed or killed at least one person.
THE best way is to load everyone into a flask. Then, load the flasks similar to SH-61B-type side-launched sonobuoy canisters. Or, UAR (All-Up Rounds) stowage.
This way, farters suffocate on their own fart. Burpers on their own burp. Each flask would have drinking and urination tubes, butt for bowel movements, Immodium can be tube fed. Anyone prematurely vacating their tube and walking about in the aisles gets the Nanahara Shuya treatment (whacked on the head with a truncheon by a mask-wearing in-flight attendant.
The benefit of horizontal or UAR stowing is that if there is an in-flight issue, or mid-air collision, as many flasks as possible would be ejected or jettisoned, ideally with their own retros and chutes. Retros would have to be of non-inflammable/non-burn-through for up to 1 minutes within the passenger compartment. Hell, why not even install RTB (return to base) retros that coordinate with as many ejected canisters as possible to enhance SAR (Search And Rescue) efforts. Even better, equip each canister with a transponder so that in the even of an IFE (In-Flight Emergency) leading to jettisoning of canisters, then they would be tracked by satellites of any nation. Yeh, equip them with EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons).
Every flask would have to have an LCD, possibly built into the durable liner. Each would have a hose washdown connector to deal with in-flight shitters. Each could be equipped with rotation servos for the wackos who want to experience Great America or Six Flags (whomever owns the parks these days) in the sky.
Since Southwest has a sense of humor, they could order "Vinculums" (Google Star Trek, Borg Vinculum) and design these as regeneration alcoves -- except, PAX can't check out. Then, allow, or force, all unruly passengers to communicate through near-hematoma inducing multiplexing brain-coalescers. Good passengers get less noise. Bad ones have to struggle to aid in the silence.
Now, embarking and debarking could be sped up to about take about only 10 minutes.
Occupants would pay different prices for horizontal, angled, and vertical emplacement.
In the event of mid-air collisions, well, dying would be totallly tooobyooluhr. Those with fears can request specially-modified canisters that deploy wings like the Tomahawk cruise missile, or drogue chutes. Now, anyone (say, alcoholics) in a RAM (Rolling-Airframe Missile) will be all washed up on spin cycle if ejected for any reason.
This isn't ROCKET science. Well, not until PAX get jettisoned...
Slashdot Mirror
Whetstones? Drystones? Gelatenous Cajones stones? Can these stones break windows?
I like that, actually. It made me laugh, pleasantly.
As I understand it, his statement can be bolstered by Buddhist teachings that we all have the Buddha essence. Whether we practice it or not, we all have the capability to eventually become not just A Buddha, but THE Buddha. It's just a matter of attaining true enlightenment. And, enlightenment is something that is VERY hard for most of us to attain, since we are suffer various afflictions: attachment, revenge, lust, greed, and more, keeping us in the birth-death-rebirth cycle until we've had enough.
To me, I think more people could or ought to embrace reincarnation (and the chance to redeem oneself (recall that Cylon regeneration and contemporary Buddhist reincarnation are themes we see in BSG--- I think many Buddhists scholars and monks might actually "attach" to BSG on those themes alone...) and hopefully LEARN and repent over multiple lifetimes than doggedly accept that ALL WE GET IS ONE SHOT. Hell, 2 months, 5 years, 75 years or 100 years is simply NOT enough time to learn to avoid Hell or Purgatory. And, if there is no reincarnation, then why do I merit gaining access to Heaven (the Christian or other heaven) if I've committed adultery, fornication, theft, murder, slander, libel, acts of greed, selfishness, and callously watched MILLIONS die because I was too self-absorbed and too chickenshit to slay corrupt politicians, elite and ultra wealthy at the root of the problem?
By NO means am I well-enlightened. But, BSG and Buddhism are far more appealing to me than most anything I can see on the screen or do on the weekends...
Just before snapping the infant's neck she said, "You won't have to worry much longer...", to which the baby's mother became uncomfortable but carelessly turned her back on Caprica 6.
But, that shriek was blood-curdling. The mood music the BSG team uses is A-J SPOT ON. Whether it's sorrow, triumph, charging to the fight, or being nose-bloodied, the music scores are awesome.
Humor (meant for the audience to consume) is right on, too. Recall when E.T. was an unknown, and Baltar was given conflicting orders by both Adama and Rosalind to test this blood sample, but neither told the other they were manipulating Baltar. It was funny when they two then (or earlier) suggested the other be tested FIRST. I won't spoil that. You just have to see it.
Another is later in Season 2 (I think, after Thrace has her cane) when Kara walks in on Baltar in his hip-grind (oh, yes, ohhh, yess) moment in the lab... Definitely, the major stations would cut that scene.
I liked when Cain and Adama battled over Adama's demanding the return of Agathon and Tyrol. It's so amazing how we can love Sharon, see others despise her, and have these two kill that prick "Cylon Interrogator" Lieutenant. I'd have belted/bolted his ass, too. There are some lines you don't cross.
I think the BSG handling of Human vs. Cylon/ God's hand vs. Man's Hand is expertly played. After all, just how sure can WE be that we are not a run-amok experiment produced by some advanced beings who have yet to come check up on us. "God" (in my mind, being an "absentee landlord/non-interventionist/distant observer"), for all we know, will allow humans to evolve to the point of creating sentient beings and then, 500 years from now, our descendants will look back at sci-fi and pity us poor, ignorant, selfish, stupid, human-above-all-beings arguments.
No human alive can prove having died and returned, so no human alive can posses (or is withholding) proof that "we are it."
Will it have the bang of ammonium nitrate? (I'm sure only anyone not remembering chemistry and lacking an imagination will mod me troll...)
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/07/0355244
i had to CHEAT to recall the meaning of "invigilated" because I forgot. Above is the URL i used.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=820
"You've got 'Ring around the collar'..."
Now, we find we've got "Rings around URhea..."
What's next? "Rings around Uranus?"
http://www.cfr.org/publication/11113/
"Cuba has the "same effect on U.S. administrations that the full moon has on a werewolf.""
"What is the likelihood that the United States and Cuba will resume diplomatic relations?
Given the range of issues dividing the two countries, experts say the possibility of normalization remains distant. "We don't use that language [normalization] anymore because the relationship is so toxic," Sweig says. Wayne Smith, director of the Cuba program at the Center for International Policy, says Cuba has the "same effect on U.S. administrations that the full moon has on a werewolf.""
i guess Cuba is the (wolfs) bane of the US' political existence... and i see the current regime is a source of angst for many Cubans outside the country. However, i will again assert that oppressing or internationally rebuking a nation's government (and spilling this over to its people) is not the way to advance a nation out of poverty and domestic oppression.
Cuba a few tons of clones Cisco gear, some slew of Linux servers, a fat pipe into the Internet, and pay off the Cuban government to open up.
But, do it in some diplomatic Asian way that might gain inroads into Cuba. Apparently, the US/Western ways must suck pretty bad. SOME government SOMEwhere needs to overtly defy the US. Externally oppressing Cuban citizens and denying US citizens visitation of Cuba is plain evil and heinous. It's just a matter of time before Cuba opens up. i just think their elite don't want history to show that the *USA* forced them to open.
China, are you LISTENING? Maybe Medvedev (and Putin) might take lead on this. Surely, the rest of the world has balls to stand up against this. Would be ironic, though, to see some combination of China and Russia convincing Cuba (through aid packages) to just knock off the current situation and in a few years be where they ought to be as if no embargoes ever happened.
i mean, REALLY, what threat has Cuba herSELF been to the US? None. She's been an active symbol of rejection of the US (to a great extent), survived coup plans orchestrated by the US, and other than refugees, has yet to launch some military attack upon the US. Drugs and other things might be issues, but it's not as if Cuba has a physical border to the US.
i'd like to see some world or NGO body once and for all defy the US and just SETTLE this matter without coups, assassinations, economic oppression or destabilization...
This is just insulting political BULLSHIT, and it's embarrassing and it just one more reason to make 'merkuns question whether travel with a US passport it the wisest or safest thing to do. After all, i've met in Japan people from various countries who had US passports AND multiple others, apparently valid, because they were from countries that permitted dual/multiple citizenship. Their countries aren't so arrogant or stupid as to assume that forcing someone to swear allegiance to ONE country makes them less likely to turn on their "new" country. Some of these people were from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and places in Europe. This was in 2004. i don't know what has happened between then and now. Of course, i'd be remiss to suggest that these people use their passports solely to not be fingered AS american citizens. Some do it to skirt around visa time frames.
Why? Well, as a non-US citizen or by entering Japan with a NON-US passport (and not being on a list of terrorist nations, unfriendly nations, or nations that might swamp Japan with foreigners looking to squat there), a visitor from the "right nations" can enter Japan on a Visitor Visa for not 90 days (as from the US) but for 180 days. Not only THAT, such visitors can WORK part time to subsidize their tourism/stay. From the US? Forget it. You can visit for 90 days, but are NOT legally permitted to work in Japan unless some company or individual puts up a bond or sponsorship and prepares the entry paperwork for obtaining a visa stamp.
Anyway, criminalizing a US citizen visit to Cuba is just obsequious, stupid, asinine, and vindictive. Someone should try again to fast-track (non-violently) Cuba's state status and maybe embargo the US for embargoing Cuba -- unless Cuba and the US are technically in a state of war. The US normalized with Vietnam, has trade status with China (a nation vastly superior to Cuba and a nation which the US is constantly measuring defense budgets against, but not against Cuba -- not on THAT scale...), and other nations from which the US incurred civilian and military deaths vastly greater than anything Cuba could have done to the US. Besides, is CUBA conducting technology-based infrastructure warfare upon the US? USA, grow up.
No, i don't expect that this *alone* would level the playing field, but it would be yet one more "feature" to help lessen the grip of office on the market.
See, sometimes people get stress or decay or other data in spreadsheets. Maybe they can't *yet* or don't want to use MathCAD or other high-end (read "expensive") tools for initial estimations of structures. But, if they could do ad-hoc analysis (nothing formal, just ad-hoc) and be able to export it to CAD packages, it could possibly add another dynamic to client-side apps such as the various competing CAD packages and the few spreadsheet apps.
As an aside about how spreadsheet features enhancements might help those wanting to escape ms office.
But, i happen to use CAD and have to deal with various things, one among them (which i am not really skilled at) being counting and inventorying symbols on a drawing. I'd prefer to use an external database, not leave it totally up to the CAD software. Sure, the CAD SW can to a LOT, but when it comes to off-line analysis of symbols that are not only COUNTED but also have to be allocated to specific places in a drawing (not just x,y,z, but maybe along arbitrary places which need special identifiers not set up in the CAD facility...)
However, we all know that since AutoCAD is the dominant CAD package, and they as yet have no interest in helping people wean off of windows if that is a local interest, then people will have to consider:
http://www.cad-schroer.com/
or http://www.varicad.com/
or others that are known to be *nux-friendly.
But, back to 3D engines. i'm not advocating adding 3-D *gaming* to spreadsheets. Rather, i'm looking to see if there is feasibility in generating 3-D shapes based on cell data. For instance, let's say you're analyzing corrosion of a building, a ship, a car, an underground utility, whatever... You collect dimensions, mass, environmental and other information. Your spreadsheet has it in numbers, but you want to show your boss the visual impact of the data. Your current spreadsheet choices are to possibly use Excel, and use conditional formatting, but you only get cell data -- unless you figure out the aforementioned 3D engine. If that tool takes off for ad-hoc analysis and helps people avoid expensive or overkill high-end math packages, then great. But, even tho OO.o and SO are growing daily, at SOME point, there will be a need for this. Maybe if I dig around in www.linux.org in spreadsheets or other folders something *might* be present...
the firehose that knowledgeable people offer up whether Star Office or OpenOffice.org can do similar feats. I realize that eventually SOMEone will figure out how to do it, but since this is not a time-critical article (no expiration date) it would be nice if Slash's submission engine had a "references/external interesting and relevant" sites/alternative products" field/array to encourage submitters to balance things out -- if references and alternatives are indeed available. Otherwise, we might not as quickly inform others that OO.o and SO can or cannot do these things. Just my opinion.
Programming Languages for 3d simulation and games - Martin Baker
http://www.euclideanspace.com/software/language/
xkcd View topic - Dinosaur PC fun
http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=11550&start=40
I mean, REALLY, (to be honest about my position) why bolster Excel any more than necessary when Open Source and Linux/FreeBSD/*nix platforms are slowed mainly *because* ms office is so dominant? Any and every chance to level the playing field should be seized, exploited, and disseminated.
Some fool took me literally....
What i like about Firefox's crash recovery is that it not only works during a crash, but when i task-kill it to recover RAM when AutoCAD drawings are huge or print spooling is dragging.
When it recovers my tabs (20+ in one instance for personal sites and 20+ tabs in another FF instance for work-related sites) and two instances of FF, it makes me feel good.
Someone questioned IE8 beta's design origins. That XP and 2K STILL (seemingly) have no patch to enable the sysadmin to come along and lock the current user and do some admin tasks without killing the apps/processes in play, and no apparent ability to restore the complete prior crashed or saved session, it makes me feel very good that i use KDE.
It appears to me that even in vista there is no memory of previous sessions to open up or restore all apps from the previous session. Why is this. Are they afraid it will give ammunition to Open Source to counter ms' dubious patent infringement threats?
Back to browsers: i LIKE Flock, but found it crashes when some myspace profiles start up the music applet. Even clicking on STOP loading in the browser menu and on the music applet is not enough to stop the crash. Killing the tab on restore previous session does work, as a workaround. i LIKE FF, and wish it would use the KDE file exploring/management widgets to which I've become so attached. i can't stand that older file display interface. i LIKE KDE. Nautilus it interesting, but i'm mostly in KDE or minimal interfaces.
(lower-casing/deprecation of "I" and "I'm" intentional; many other languages do not arrogantly case-place the self of the speaker above the listener or observer-- even though other languages tend to have separate words (honorific and plain/familiar) for the western/Latin "I"). So, it is my mission to start a movement to deprecate the importance of "I" and force it to "i"...
Join me: i will try to lead the way...
There *could* be a *WO*man in the office someday.
Personally, when I was in uniform and when I was taken in hand for criticizing a sitting president (84-88, and this happened around 86) I was told (or probably given an implied order) to RESPECT THE MAN IN OFFICE. To hell with that. If an idiot or dunce is in office, call a spade a spade. But, if fools someday (or in the past) take/took office, it would be tragic to not challenge that. I take GREAT offence at being told to unwaveringly GIVE my support for *the president*. If ANY president kills for power or destabilizes governments for control and so on, and tries to assign to that act my name... well, screw that, and SCREW HIM/HER. I have a bigger world view, and it doesn't allow for individual countries to call the shots for all the rest. EVER.
Well, unless you're in Russia. But, hey, even in Russia today, SOME permission is allowed to criticize the government. It just might not get printed.
(Mark me troll, but read on...)
That's why it won't be a "breeding" ground. It'll be a "BLEEDING GROUND"....
Hmmm, i looked at the singular singularity site and noticed:
Ryan Braud (University of Califorina, San Diego
Seems like a singular symbol is missing..., and a singular character swapping/transposition inserted...
No WONDER this product will "never be commercial"....
Maybe they need to take some of that silverlight and and ms word and spell check?
He rise to be a harried Potter?
Well, I'm going to chime in on Corea/Korea, since it's been brought up...
The US is just in a near-conniption fit that the North has not collapsed, imploded, or exploded. It's a major embarrassment that multiple US administrations just ineptly cannot figure out how to have state-to-state talks with the North and get out of the way of confederation leading to reunification. Don't like MY perception? Read...on
Check out "Korean Endgame" by Selig S. Harrison...
The first two chapters show how ignorant the US can be when it comes to taking sides and coercing what it thinks are its client states (and is instead manipulated by the South, as was Russia by the North), yet (the US) ends up delaying reunification because if later finds it NEEDS and DESIRES a 'clear and present danger' of sorts in order to justify $42B a year in deployed US military assets around Asia, and $2B a year going directly to the South.
The South recently offered citizenship to people of the North. The YOUTH of the South probably care less about politics, but wealthy in the loop with military and economic assets at risk don't want to be besieged nor bothered by a massive influx of poor Northerners. In general, though, many if not most Koreans (North and South are torn by the division instigated by by Kim Song Il, after duping Stalin and getting assent from China.
The US *claims* it wants to aid Korea Unify, but so far it mostly has obstructed or ineptly carried out talks, bullied the North, and placated the South, enable the South to experience as little pain as possible in the march toward confederation. The North expected (rightfully) confederation and a formal declaration of cessation of hostilities, but the US botched things imposing its OWN view on BOTH Koreas. However, Seoul, for its part, never signed the armistice...
Now, what is going on is the Russians no longer sell much of anything military to the North, but is instead selling to the South and to others. The upshot is that the NK "regime"/government/Workers' Party isn't likely to go out with a bang. It'll just muddle along, and reunification (50% thanks to the US) will happen DECADES later than it could have or should have.
For what it's worth, i feel sorry for BOTH halves of Korea and i hope history takes in hand all those who did their bit to undermine and humiliate a great people, and wrought them great humiliation.
i hope the Coreas reunify SOON (less than 10 years). I hope they shift to indigenous local partners of the regional defense, and I hope they PROVE to Japan that a unified Corea purged of US occupation is NOT a threat to the Japanese peoples. i don't think there will be any wars unless puppeteers from afar instigate things.
WHEN is this country going to f*king LEARN!!!???? You DO NOT successfully, peacefully advance rogue countries by ostracising them. Even just recently, Cuba signed on to Human Rights covenants/laws now that Fidel Castro turned power over to his brother.
There are "Americans" who have suffering relatives IN Cuba, (I believe there are permissions with limits on how much US citizens can send annually to Cuba), and it ought to be criminal to expect people to put on a uniform to potentially go and kill or threaten to kill relatives in OR outside the country.
I think the US government and some wealthy are just royally pissed that Fidel, like Kim Jong-Il, didn't just 'vanish' or 'die". Castro outlived MULTIPLE US presidents... must be an embarrassment to the USA...
A serrated harpoon, weighted on the tethered end, and launches at 23,525 fps. You can run, but you CAN'T HIDE... Your hide will be HAD.
Secondary security is gigantic rat traps, optimized for restraining human variety.
Probably some dim-wit bean counter decided that it wasn't worth it to develop a Flash version of it. ALL the games out there in Flash... you gotta wonder what is going on in the minds of these execs and their lackeys lacking vision.
Would it have really been THAT hard, Mattel/Hasbro?
Now, i can imagine them strong-arming Facebook to divert the weekly $25,000 take. But, maybe, out of spite, the advertisers of Scrabulous should terminate their advertising contracts and poison the well if Hasbro/Mattel come on like gangbusters. They had ALL these years (what, 2 or 3, or 4?) to protect "their" "trademark" and apparently did not aggressively do so. SO, they probably will be found to have allowed dilution (or whatever the legal term is), abandonment, and disregard for shareholder interests.
Those Scrabulous brothers should rename it to Sclaburous, or Scabo, or something. Now, maybe "scabo" might be problematic:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=scabo
But, since it appears "sclaburous" is not in Google, i confer it to the Scabulous Brothers. If anyone else is using it, i will deliberately use it and dilute it any and every printed chance i get. And, if corporations pick it up, to hell with them. i made up the word, and if the public use of it by me or by others is threatened, i will keep pushing it. Try to issue any cease and desist... you WILL regret it.
Generally, I would pick on first class, thoughtlessly, but when you think about it, doesn't first class USUALLY have only 2-seats abreast, vice 3, on each side of the aisle? And, in first class, the rows are shorter, meaning that there is still less of a chance that 1st class pax are going to hold things up TOO much.
What the damned airlines need to do is load pax at TWO ends of the plane, OR...
IN the MIDDLE, but file pax in by area, but fire-fighter-aboard-ship style: ZIPPER FASHION.
Forward area pax file in on that side of the jetway, aft area pax file in on THAT side of the jetway. As you enter the aircraft, peel off and head in your designated direction.
Forward-most pax file in first, aft-most next, and middle-area pax last. Do the revers for exit, unless the gateway provides two jetways, either fore and aft, or one each side of the fuselage. But, the damned airports don't want to factor this into long-term costs, feasible security designs, etc. Or, maybe they DID, but rejected it in favor of the status quo, as in maybe thee airlines want to save on door maintenance costs?
This alone could cut the loading time in half.
"Especially when we're talking about short commuter flights, it's a short flight -- you don't care which seat you have. You do care how long you sit without moving -- you know, just like a bus."
Well, depending on the blade failure rate of the turbo prop you're on, you MIGHT not want to be near the blades. I was told this around 1995, and I was glad engine failure rates were really, really low. As I understood, there was at least (or, probably) one incident where blades entered the cabin and maimed or killed at least one person.
SH-61B should be SH-60B/some variant...
THE best way is to load everyone into a flask. Then, load the flasks similar to SH-61B-type side-launched sonobuoy canisters. Or, UAR (All-Up Rounds) stowage.
This way, farters suffocate on their own fart. Burpers on their own burp. Each flask would have drinking and urination tubes, butt for bowel movements, Immodium can be tube fed. Anyone prematurely vacating their tube and walking about in the aisles gets the Nanahara Shuya treatment (whacked on the head with a truncheon by a mask-wearing in-flight attendant.
The benefit of horizontal or UAR stowing is that if there is an in-flight issue, or mid-air collision, as many flasks as possible would be ejected or jettisoned, ideally with their own retros and chutes. Retros would have to be of non-inflammable/non-burn-through for up to 1 minutes within the passenger compartment. Hell, why not even install RTB (return to base) retros that coordinate with as many ejected canisters as possible to enhance SAR (Search And Rescue) efforts. Even better, equip each canister with a transponder so that in the even of an IFE (In-Flight Emergency) leading to jettisoning of canisters, then they would be tracked by satellites of any nation. Yeh, equip them with EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons).
Every flask would have to have an LCD, possibly built into the durable liner. Each would have a hose washdown connector to deal with in-flight shitters. Each could be equipped with rotation servos for the wackos who want to experience Great America or Six Flags (whomever owns the parks these days) in the sky.
Since Southwest has a sense of humor, they could order "Vinculums" (Google Star Trek, Borg Vinculum) and design these as regeneration alcoves -- except, PAX can't check out. Then, allow, or force, all unruly passengers to communicate through near-hematoma inducing multiplexing brain-coalescers. Good passengers get less noise. Bad ones have to struggle to aid in the silence.
Now, embarking and debarking could be sped up to about take about only 10 minutes.
Occupants would pay different prices for horizontal, angled, and vertical emplacement.
In the event of mid-air collisions, well, dying would be totallly tooobyooluhr. Those with fears can request specially-modified canisters that deploy wings like the Tomahawk cruise missile, or drogue chutes. Now, anyone (say, alcoholics) in a RAM (Rolling-Airframe Missile) will be all washed up on spin cycle if ejected for any reason.
This isn't ROCKET science. Well, not until PAX get jettisoned...
Cyber-gOOgles...
I almost thought this was an article about government spying on surfers...
in the rough...