This thread is concentrating on Atlantic hurricanes. Here's an excerp from Noaa's archives about hurricane Linda in 1997, the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the eastern Pacific Ocean. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/1997linda.html For this discussion, the final two sentences are the ones that count:
Although maximum sustained winds of 160 knots and minimum central pressure of 902 mb indicated in the best track makes Linda the strongest hurricane on record in the eastern North Pacific to date, one should remember that intensities are almost always estimated from satellite interpretations for this basin. Also, the record is quite short, since routine satellite surveillance began in 1966. There could well have been other cyclones as strong as, or stronger than, Linda.
On particularly hot days, I often hear the weatherman always citing the previous record for that date, in 1915 or some such date. Geez, the world sure was hot about a century ago.
My father talked about how, several decades past, the waters around his hometown became a couple of degrees farenheit warmer than usual, putting the population too close for comfort to hurricane territory. Fortunately, no hurricane hit during that period, and water temperature dropped back to normal after four or five years.
For these reasons, I am unimpressed about particular events like hot days and a seasonal increase in hurricane activity, as we truly don't have enough data to reach a definitive conclusion. However, the receding north pole ice scares the hell out of me. The north pole ice cap was NOT melting about a century ago and it is NOW, and THAT is a definitive conclusion.
1. The spanish conquistadors reported chest-deep snow in the Arizona desert in the sixteenth century, and that doesn't happen anymore. 2. Recent studies conclude that a massive, prolonged drought destroyed the mayan civilization several centuries before. 3. European winters were harsher and drier during the middle ages.
These three phenomena can be attributed, with computer simulations, to a cutting off of the thermohaline circulation current, which is attributable to the melting of polar ice, a consequence of global warming.
In 25 words or less: A miniature ice age developed several centuries ago, in a manner that can only be described today as the result of a global warming period.
Oh great. Those sound like Porn star hurricane names.
Want to know what your very own porn star name is? It's an easy formula:
Your second name + Name of street you grew up in = Your porn star name
If it doesn't quite fit, use the name of another street that's part of your life, like the one where your school is or was, the one where you work, you get the idea.
For example, my porn star name would be "Alex Roman".
Several years ago, I read an Isaac Asimov novel called The Currents Of Space, written in the 1950's or 60's, which dealt with a planet whose star was about to undergo a supernova event, thanks to (you guessed it) a Birkeland Current. If I remember correctly, the current was deviated and missed the star, saving all involved.
Curiously, there was an author's foreword that discredited the scientific content along lines like this:
"The Birkeland Current theory was in vogue during the time this novel was written. However, science advances and astrophysics is no exception, as current theories better explain the origin of supernova events".
Goin' full circle, everything old is new again! However, in the novel, any star could go supernova if hit by the Birkland Current, so these guys today have done quite a bit of fine-tuning.
Take, for example, the state of Montana, similar in size to the country of Bangladesh. Montana has a few million inhabitants, while Bangladesh has several hundred million, in roughly the same area.
If Bangladesh had the same population as Montana, and a force 4 or 5 hurricane would hit, several hundred people would die. But as it turns out, hundreds of thousands would die, and actually have died in various monsoon seasons, which pack the rain but not the winds. And still typhoons also hit that area, from time to time.
Furthermore, Bangladesh is geographically similar to the state of Louisiana: low-lying marshlands. So every time any climatological event hits Bangladesh, it's a worst-case scenario, over and over again.
Now where should those people move to? India? Thailand? Burma? China? They're knee deep as it is.
As western medicine has entered those countries, infant mortality rates have dropped dramatically, yet the tradition of having eight, ten or more children persists, and nowadays most of those children will reach adulthood, perpetuating the process of insane population growth, packed into thousands of makeshift villages. And then natural disasters come along in what seems like almost regular intervals to destroy a humongous chunk (in numbers, not in percentages) of those people in one fell swoop after another.
One bottled water label, I'm not sure which but I think it's Dasani, prints the source of the water on the label: Municipal water supply of the city of Corpus Christi, Texas. It costs less than a nickel to fill that thing up, and they sell it to you for a dollar a pop.
When I buy bottled water, I go out of my way to find "mountain spring water".
But I guess that if you're a citizen of Corpus Christi, you can refill with no legal problems, as you will refill it with the same thing that's printed on the label.
While we're at it, what's the deal with those tags on matresses? "Do not remove this tag under penalty of law", and that's all they say.
Sigh. I remember standing in line for several hours in the parking lot of the movie theater to see Raiders Of The Lost Ark when it came out. The theatre doors seemed like a quarter of a mile away. Everybody was hyped to the max. Fewer theaters showed it back then, but they were gigantic single-screen theaters, so when the line moved, it moved for like fifteen minutes. Then the gates closed, and we were right on the outside wall of the cinema, to be there for another two and a half hours. When our turn came and we were led inside, the place was buzzing with anticipation by what seemed like a thousand people, an electrifying thing to experience. Then the lights went out and everybody turned absolutely silent for the following hours, except to laugh, gasp or cheer. Finally, we stumbled out with jell-o legs, adrenaline pumping, the fresh air hit my face, and I saw the line again, a quarter of a mile long. But I was on the other side of the movie now, and felt a pang of envy for those people, because they were about to live what I'd just gone through. Sigh.
Compare with, let's say, The Return Of The King. Much shorter waiting time, yes, but as we went in, we were immediately greeted by bland movie trivia and commercials on the screen, while bland top forty radio played in the background. A buzz of expectation, yes, but muted, not a collective one, and multiplex screening rooms are ten times smaller than the old ones. Then the lights go down, and BOOM! more commercials, preview after preview after preview, then FINALLY the movie started. Both kids and adults talked during the show, cell phones rang and to top it off, some trolls peeked from the hallway of the multiplex to scream at the top of their lungs in unison: "FRODO KILLS GOLLUM!" Yes, I'd read the Trilogy a long time ago, but this is still an extreme act of aural vandalism, an invasion.
Meanwhile, the bored ushers (but that's "entertainment service executives" for mere consumers like you and I) were probably huddling by the concession stand, gossiping and talking about how lame their job is and what are you doing this weekend, etcetera, as I've often seen them do, but hey, how motivated can you be when you earn the minimum wage?
Is it any wonder I prefer Netflix nowadays? Cinema is just not a religious experience for most people anymore, because the places the Hollywood industry has designed to process us moviegoers (that's "captive eyeballs" to mere consumers like you and me) are mundane clones of each other, 'McDonalized', to coin a term, and most of the movies they make fit PERFECTLY into these mundane spaces. Now, art theatres are another matter altogether, and I even get the distinct impression that the people who work in art theatres enjoy it because they believe in what they are doing, and that makes a world of difference.
Oh, by the way, Firethorn, you forgot to mention an added bonus to watching a movie at home: your living room does NOT have to be a smoke-free zone. Chain smoke with a beer in hand for the whole movie, baby, yeah!
As schools become victims of overcrowding, an assembly-line approach to education is taken, less personalized attention is given to every child (in some cases none at all), and classes become an unbearably dull experience that emphasizes rote memorization and pointless periodical evaluations.
And all this is the fault of the kids, I presume?
A teacher, in any wise society, should be very, very high on the totem pole. But in current United States society, the teacher is underpaid and underfunded, either to be taken for granted or used as a scapegoat, in a peer environment that is political, prone to censorship hysteria, and in many cases, scared to death of the kids they are supposedly trying to "reach". It's no wonder that this scenario discourages exactly those who should be treated like heroes, all the while alienating the child.
The result is a slew of under-qualified, under-equipped and/or under-motivated teachers in classrooms packed with fifty of more kids, all over the country. How could this have possibly happened? It's a recipe for disaster of epic proportions.
I just think that this culture of true love, self fulfillment, avoidance of suffering has made us too soft to survive.
Damn right. However, this sentence fits a large percentage of the Baby Boomer generation like a glove, too self-absorbed to bother making an authentic, valid effort for the next generation, while they had the chance.
Not quite. Duffbeer703 may be referring to the "dollar hegemony", a global dynamic put in place in or around the end of WWII, which refers to how countries need stockpiles of US dollars in reserve to buy petroleum in an international market. Therefore, and by a wide margin, the main United States export is dollar bills, of BIG denomination.
As of recently, most countries obeyed this unwritten law: Iraq switched to Euros back in 2001, and the interim US government immediately switched back to dollars. Iran recently began valueing a good portion of its' oil reserves in Euros. Same with Venezuela. OPEC in general has been flirting with the Euro as of late.
So it that context, Duffbeer703 is right on the money.
I've been hearing about plans of a craft of this type that would get you from NY to Tokyo in 45 minutes.
Yep, that would be the "New Orient Express" that Ronald Reagan (!) declared with a bit of fanfare twenty years ago. The technology that was mentioned back in those days was scramjet, but I haven't heard much about it for several years.
This was a hot topic in the late eighties, along the lines of: "Today's hot-shot tech kids say they can build a spaceship that can take off and land on a regular airstrip, using off-the-rack scramjet technology".
However, after this hoopla, it seems that the big United States and European airplane manufacturers became disenchanted from the idea and it was put on the back burner.
As a case in point, check out the direction that Boeing is staking its' chips on, the 7E7: lightweight, emphasis on fuel efficiency, extra leg and elbow room for passengers.
First off, you made me realize I'm at least five years behind, which breaks my heart, but I can only thank you for letting me know. I've gotta get on the ball. (In case you've all forgotten what a geek is).
Second, from paragraph 14 to 15 (out of 22), you went from theory to workshop to politics.
I agree with your optimistic ideas in what we, as a species, must do. I agree with your ideas as to how to go about it at first. I'm worried about the long-term factor: People who think opposite of science have so far waxed and waned in power, and may (will) surface again.
Democracy (with a Capital D) depends on You (and me) tolerating the existence (yet resisting the ideas) of fools.
After the tragedy and severe setback of Columbia, NASA needs to show the world that astronauts are can-do type of people, who can repair an engine while the car is speeding down the highway.
Just for the heck of it, consider this: Mission Control knows that the current situation is low-risk, maybe even a normal occurrence, and maybe in fact NASA has been quietly planning a PR coup for months. I mean, c'mon, they've been poring over Discovery with a pair of pliers and a microscope for a couple of years now. Also, it's a given that today's media uncertainty will be Saturday's certain triumphant headline: "Daring Shuttle crew successfully repairs Discovery while in orbit!" And then again a few days later: "TOUCHDOWN!" Cue much applause, gushing commentary and optimism as we rush towards an uncertain future, with our heads up high.
I'd like to conclude by saying that I am not speculating in a cynical manner. In fact, I would applaud such a thing: we must not neglect human presence in outer space, it has always been a risky proposition, and a bit of showmanship can go a long way to make the public feel confident in supporting a Space Program.
On a side note, ask yourself this: Who pays for the payola? And the fines? And Britney Spears' eighty million dollar contract?
We all do, every time we go to the record store and buy a CD at twenty bucks, when we know that manufacturing the physical product costs less than a dollar.
That's an interesting question. Here's my two cents: The concept of collusion between two separate industries to manipulate the marketplace to their benefit. Sony Bertelsmann bumps the competition out of the way, and the radio industry gets to line its' pockets by the simple action of excluding independent record companies, filling their playlist with Sony Bertelsmann acts.
Imagine this: Microsoft buys out all nationwide software retailers so that there's only Windows apps in their shelves. No Linux, no OSX, no nothing, only Windows. Sure, you can get your Linux apps through the Internet, or by driving to a mom-and-pop store across town. But it's still an unfair competitive edge, brought about by Microsoft's humongous resources that will only get bigger in this manner, and so it spirals ever deeper.
The law, in theory, is there to protect the small guy from the bloated business monster with resources to burn in the pursuit of absolute control over everything. Inevitably, after a corporation grows to a certain bloated size, it seeks power for power's sake, which historically has proven to be detrimental to society at large. They might think they are playing a clever game of chess on a grand scale, but they are actually waging warfare against a community that does not have the resources to fight back. Just look at Wal-Mart. And what did Akio Morita say back in the day? "Business is warfare".
Personally, I believe a basic mechanism to keep civilization running smoothly is to avoid allowing too much to accumulate in too few hands, and radio is no exception.
I can think of many other arguments of why something like payola is wrong, but these are my thoughts on why it should be and remain illegal.
Actually, it's five stages, they relate to how one deals with one's own death, and the correct order is: Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Heavy stuff, as defined by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.
External USB hard drives are an improvement, but surely there must be a better way.
Firewire? I was mightily impressed by it, as compared to USB. I was like, "I could've had a V-8!" (for those too young to remember, that's the old advertisement punchline for the vegetable juice brand).
The sad thing about Firewire is that it could have been the industry standard, but a late-nineties, rudderless, pre-Jobs Apple wanted a ridiculous royalty for every Firewire port installed in every computer, so the industry sidestepped Firewire, still the best data transfer delivery system after all these years, and opted to develop the inferior USB2 instead.
1) Well they shouldn't be. Four hour rechargeable batteries (laptop) are way less than a pound. 2) Shouldn't be. RCA jacks are an industry standard, why the crossover expense? It's nuts. 3) I guess this point is where true innovation would come into play 4) Will do. 5) Google it. It's there. Bose speakers are the size of a pack of cigarrettes, but emit the type of sound that would fill a dancehall.
My point is that items 1, 2 and 4 should be on every computer today. I know number 3 is not yet practical, and number 5 is prohibitively expensive.
1. If I use the mouse for a long time, or forget to recharge it (bound to happen to most of us at one point or another), I'm stuck with a handicapped interface until the bloody rodent gets juiced up again.
2. If there's a loose mouse lying around, it's bound to crawl under the couch at one point or another.
Granted, wireless mice can be very useful for a lot of people in many situations (conferences with laptops and projectors come to mind), but in a domestic environment, I'd rather keep my mouse on a leash.
I'm thinking desktop computers here, as I don't have a laptop.
1. A rechargeable 5-minute battery so that in case there's a blackout, you have a chance to save your documents, grab a flashlight or candles without fumbling in the dark, then properly shut down the computer. Picture a miniature version of a laptop battery and forget about buying a twenty-pound power backup that costs a bundle.
2. RCA jacks on the back of a desktop should be standard, to hook up to the TV with no hassle. They're probably out there, but mine doesn't have them, and I haven't seen one that does.
3. Monitors should have touch-screen input, too. To scroll Google Maps with a finger, for example.
4. Integration with programmable, universal remote controls for a few basic functions (Shut Down, Volume Up, Volume Down, you get the idea).
5. Integrated Bose speakers, baby! Yeah! Okay, so what the hell, a little kick-ass luxury would be nice, too.
Yes indeed. Cape Canaveral is used for attaining equatorial orbit, while Vandenberg is used for circumpolar orbit. There have been no manned circumpolar missions at all, ever. None. Just the occasional scientific or military satellite.
Slashdot Mirror
This thread is concentrating on Atlantic hurricanes. Here's an excerp from Noaa's archives about hurricane Linda in 1997, the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the eastern Pacific Ocean. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/1997linda.html For this discussion, the final two sentences are the ones that count:
Although maximum sustained winds of 160 knots and minimum central pressure of 902 mb indicated in the best track makes Linda the strongest hurricane on record in the eastern North Pacific to date, one should remember that intensities are almost always estimated from satellite interpretations for this basin. Also, the record is quite short, since routine satellite surveillance began in 1966. There could well have been other cyclones as strong as, or stronger than, Linda.
On particularly hot days, I often hear the weatherman always citing the previous record for that date, in 1915 or some such date. Geez, the world sure was hot about a century ago.
My father talked about how, several decades past, the waters around his hometown became a couple of degrees farenheit warmer than usual, putting the population too close for comfort to hurricane territory. Fortunately, no hurricane hit during that period, and water temperature dropped back to normal after four or five years.
For these reasons, I am unimpressed about particular events like hot days and a seasonal increase in hurricane activity, as we truly don't have enough data to reach a definitive conclusion. However, the receding north pole ice scares the hell out of me. The north pole ice cap was NOT melting about a century ago and it is NOW, and THAT is a definitive conclusion.
There are also historical records on the subject.
1. The spanish conquistadors reported chest-deep snow in the Arizona desert in the sixteenth century, and that doesn't happen anymore.
2. Recent studies conclude that a massive, prolonged drought destroyed the mayan civilization several centuries before.
3. European winters were harsher and drier during the middle ages.
These three phenomena can be attributed, with computer simulations, to a cutting off of the thermohaline circulation current, which is attributable to the melting of polar ice, a consequence of global warming.
In 25 words or less: A miniature ice age developed several centuries ago, in a manner that can only be described today as the result of a global warming period.
Hey, that was exactly 25 words!
Oh great. Those sound like Porn star hurricane names.
Want to know what your very own porn star name is?
It's an easy formula:
Your second name + Name of street you grew up in = Your porn star name
If it doesn't quite fit, use the name of another street that's part of your life, like the one where your school is or was, the one where you work, you get the idea.
For example, my porn star name would be "Alex Roman".
Several years ago, I read an Isaac Asimov novel called The Currents Of Space, written in the 1950's or 60's, which dealt with a planet whose star was about to undergo a supernova event, thanks to (you guessed it) a Birkeland Current. If I remember correctly, the current was deviated and missed the star, saving all involved.
Curiously, there was an author's foreword that discredited the scientific content along lines like this:
"The Birkeland Current theory was in vogue during the time this novel was written. However, science advances and astrophysics is no exception, as current theories better explain the origin of supernova events".
Goin' full circle, everything old is new again! However, in the novel, any star could go supernova if hit by the Birkland Current, so these guys today have done quite a bit of fine-tuning.
Bingo.
Take, for example, the state of Montana, similar in size to the country of Bangladesh. Montana has a few million inhabitants, while Bangladesh has several hundred million, in roughly the same area.
If Bangladesh had the same population as Montana, and a force 4 or 5 hurricane would hit, several hundred people would die. But as it turns out, hundreds of thousands would die, and actually have died in various monsoon seasons, which pack the rain but not the winds. And still typhoons also hit that area, from time to time.
Furthermore, Bangladesh is geographically similar to the state of Louisiana: low-lying marshlands. So every time any climatological event hits Bangladesh, it's a worst-case scenario, over and over again.
Now where should those people move to? India? Thailand? Burma? China? They're knee deep as it is.
As western medicine has entered those countries, infant mortality rates have dropped dramatically, yet the tradition of having eight, ten or more children persists, and nowadays most of those children will reach adulthood, perpetuating the process of insane population growth, packed into thousands of makeshift villages. And then natural disasters come along in what seems like almost regular intervals to destroy a humongous chunk (in numbers, not in percentages) of those people in one fell swoop after another.
What a nightmare.
One bottled water label, I'm not sure which but I think it's Dasani, prints the source of the water on the label: Municipal water supply of the city of Corpus Christi, Texas. It costs less than a nickel to fill that thing up, and they sell it to you for a dollar a pop.
When I buy bottled water, I go out of my way to find "mountain spring water".
But I guess that if you're a citizen of Corpus Christi, you can refill with no legal problems, as you will refill it with the same thing that's printed on the label.
While we're at it, what's the deal with those tags on matresses? "Do not remove this tag under penalty of law", and that's all they say.
A swing and a miss......
Oh man, I just gave up my option to mod on this topic by posting on it. This is the subtle opposite of the hentai tentacle, but just as good.
Sigh. I remember standing in line for several hours in the parking lot of the movie theater to see Raiders Of The Lost Ark when it came out. The theatre doors seemed like a quarter of a mile away. Everybody was hyped to the max. Fewer theaters showed it back then, but they were gigantic single-screen theaters, so when the line moved, it moved for like fifteen minutes. Then the gates closed, and we were right on the outside wall of the cinema, to be there for another two and a half hours. When our turn came and we were led inside, the place was buzzing with anticipation by what seemed like a thousand people, an electrifying thing to experience. Then the lights went out and everybody turned absolutely silent for the following hours, except to laugh, gasp or cheer. Finally, we stumbled out with jell-o legs, adrenaline pumping, the fresh air hit my face, and I saw the line again, a quarter of a mile long. But I was on the other side of the movie now, and felt a pang of envy for those people, because they were about to live what I'd just gone through. Sigh.
Compare with, let's say, The Return Of The King. Much shorter waiting time, yes, but as we went in, we were immediately greeted by bland movie trivia and commercials on the screen, while bland top forty radio played in the background. A buzz of expectation, yes, but muted, not a collective one, and multiplex screening rooms are ten times smaller than the old ones. Then the lights go down, and BOOM! more commercials, preview after preview after preview, then FINALLY the movie started. Both kids and adults talked during the show, cell phones rang and to top it off, some trolls peeked from the hallway of the multiplex to scream at the top of their lungs in unison: "FRODO KILLS GOLLUM!" Yes, I'd read the Trilogy a long time ago, but this is still an extreme act of aural vandalism, an invasion.
Meanwhile, the bored ushers (but that's "entertainment service executives" for mere consumers like you and I) were probably huddling by the concession stand, gossiping and talking about how lame their job is and what are you doing this weekend, etcetera, as I've often seen them do, but hey, how motivated can you be when you earn the minimum wage?
Is it any wonder I prefer Netflix nowadays? Cinema is just not a religious experience for most people anymore, because the places the Hollywood industry has designed to process us moviegoers (that's "captive eyeballs" to mere consumers like you and me) are mundane clones of each other, 'McDonalized', to coin a term, and most of the movies they make fit PERFECTLY into these mundane spaces. Now, art theatres are another matter altogether, and I even get the distinct impression that the people who work in art theatres enjoy it because they believe in what they are doing, and that makes a world of difference.
Oh, by the way, Firethorn, you forgot to mention an added bonus to watching a movie at home: your living room does NOT have to be a smoke-free zone. Chain smoke with a beer in hand for the whole movie, baby, yeah!
kids just don't want to work
I beg to differ right there.
As schools become victims of overcrowding, an assembly-line approach to education is taken, less personalized attention is given to every child (in some cases none at all), and classes become an unbearably dull experience that emphasizes rote memorization and pointless periodical evaluations.
And all this is the fault of the kids, I presume?
A teacher, in any wise society, should be very, very high on the totem pole. But in current United States society, the teacher is underpaid and underfunded, either to be taken for granted or used as a scapegoat, in a peer environment that is political, prone to censorship hysteria, and in many cases, scared to death of the kids they are supposedly trying to "reach". It's no wonder that this scenario discourages exactly those who should be treated like heroes, all the while alienating the child.
The result is a slew of under-qualified, under-equipped and/or under-motivated teachers in classrooms packed with fifty of more kids, all over the country. How could this have possibly happened? It's a recipe for disaster of epic proportions.
I just think that this culture of true love, self fulfillment, avoidance of suffering has made us too soft to survive.
Damn right. However, this sentence fits a large percentage of the Baby Boomer generation like a glove, too self-absorbed to bother making an authentic, valid effort for the next generation, while they had the chance.
...they invented the zero
So did the Mayans.
Not quite. Duffbeer703 may be referring to the "dollar hegemony", a global dynamic put in place in or around the end of WWII, which refers to how countries need stockpiles of US dollars in reserve to buy petroleum in an international market. Therefore, and by a wide margin, the main United States export is dollar bills, of BIG denomination.
As of recently, most countries obeyed this unwritten law: Iraq switched to Euros back in 2001, and the interim US government immediately switched back to dollars. Iran recently began valueing a good portion of its' oil reserves in Euros. Same with Venezuela. OPEC in general has been flirting with the Euro as of late.
So it that context, Duffbeer703 is right on the money.
I've been hearing about plans of a craft of this type that would get you from NY to Tokyo in 45 minutes.
Yep, that would be the "New Orient Express" that Ronald Reagan (!) declared with a bit of fanfare twenty years ago. The technology that was mentioned back in those days was scramjet, but I haven't heard much about it for several years.
This was a hot topic in the late eighties, along the lines of: "Today's hot-shot tech kids say they can build a spaceship that can take off and land on a regular airstrip, using off-the-rack scramjet technology".
However, after this hoopla, it seems that the big United States and European airplane manufacturers became disenchanted from the idea and it was put on the back burner.
As a case in point, check out the direction that Boeing is staking its' chips on, the 7E7: lightweight, emphasis on fuel efficiency, extra leg and elbow room for passengers.
How how would they be able to do this without Scotty?!?!
Geordy Laforge?
First off, you made me realize I'm at least five years behind, which breaks my heart, but I can only thank you for letting me know. I've gotta get on the ball. (In case you've all forgotten what a geek is).
Second, from paragraph 14 to 15 (out of 22), you went from theory to workshop to politics.
I agree with your optimistic ideas in what we, as a species, must do. I agree with your ideas as to how to go about it at first. I'm worried about the long-term factor: People who think opposite of science have so far waxed and waned in power, and may (will) surface again.
Democracy (with a Capital D) depends on You (and me) tolerating the existence (yet resisting the ideas) of fools.
After the tragedy and severe setback of Columbia, NASA needs to show the world that astronauts are can-do type of people, who can repair an engine while the car is speeding down the highway.
Just for the heck of it, consider this:
Mission Control knows that the current situation is low-risk, maybe even a normal occurrence, and maybe in fact NASA has been quietly planning a PR coup for months. I mean, c'mon, they've been poring over Discovery with a pair of pliers and a microscope for a couple of years now.
Also, it's a given that today's media uncertainty will be Saturday's certain triumphant headline: "Daring Shuttle crew successfully repairs Discovery while in orbit!" And then again a few days later: "TOUCHDOWN!" Cue much applause, gushing commentary and optimism as we rush towards an uncertain future, with our heads up high.
I'd like to conclude by saying that I am not speculating in a cynical manner. In fact, I would applaud such a thing: we must not neglect human presence in outer space, it has always been a risky proposition, and a bit of showmanship can go a long way to make the public feel confident in supporting a Space Program.
On a side note, ask yourself this: Who pays for the payola? And the fines? And Britney Spears' eighty million dollar contract?
We all do, every time we go to the record store and buy a CD at twenty bucks, when we know that manufacturing the physical product costs less than a dollar.
Why exactly should this be illegal?
That's an interesting question. Here's my two cents: The concept of collusion between two separate industries to manipulate the marketplace to their benefit.
Sony Bertelsmann bumps the competition out of the way, and the radio industry gets to line its' pockets by the simple action of excluding independent record companies, filling their playlist with Sony Bertelsmann acts.
Imagine this: Microsoft buys out all nationwide software retailers so that there's only Windows apps in their shelves. No Linux, no OSX, no nothing, only Windows. Sure, you can get your Linux apps through the Internet, or by driving to a mom-and-pop store across town. But it's still an unfair competitive edge, brought about by Microsoft's humongous resources that will only get bigger in this manner, and so it spirals ever deeper.
The law, in theory, is there to protect the small guy from the bloated business monster with resources to burn in the pursuit of absolute control over everything.
Inevitably, after a corporation grows to a certain bloated size, it seeks power for power's sake, which historically has proven to be detrimental to society at large. They might think they are playing a clever game of chess on a grand scale, but they are actually waging warfare against a community that does not have the resources to fight back. Just look at Wal-Mart. And what did Akio Morita say back in the day? "Business is warfare".
Personally, I believe a basic mechanism to keep civilization running smoothly is to avoid allowing too much to accumulate in too few hands, and radio is no exception.
I can think of many other arguments of why something like payola is wrong, but these are my thoughts on why it should be and remain illegal.
Actually, it's five stages, they relate to how one deals with one's own death, and the correct order is: Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Heavy stuff, as defined by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.
Found the remote control at http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/airclick /index.php, thanks for the tip.
However, the receiver is a cumbersome apparatus connected via USB. I'd like to see it integrated like an Airport or Bluetooth card.
External USB hard drives are an improvement, but surely there must be a better way.
Firewire? I was mightily impressed by it, as compared to USB. I was like, "I could've had a V-8!" (for those too young to remember, that's the old advertisement punchline for the vegetable juice brand).
The sad thing about Firewire is that it could have been the industry standard, but a late-nineties, rudderless, pre-Jobs Apple wanted a ridiculous royalty for every Firewire port installed in every computer, so the industry sidestepped Firewire, still the best data transfer delivery system after all these years, and opted to develop the inferior USB2 instead.
1) Well they shouldn't be. Four hour rechargeable batteries (laptop) are way less than a pound.
2) Shouldn't be. RCA jacks are an industry standard, why the crossover expense? It's nuts.
3) I guess this point is where true innovation would come into play
4) Will do.
5) Google it. It's there. Bose speakers are the size of a pack of cigarrettes, but emit the type of sound that would fill a dancehall.
My point is that items 1, 2 and 4 should be on every computer today. I know number 3 is not yet practical, and number 5 is prohibitively expensive.
Two reasons:
1. If I use the mouse for a long time, or forget to recharge it (bound to happen to most of us at one point or another), I'm stuck with a handicapped interface until the bloody rodent gets juiced up again.
2. If there's a loose mouse lying around, it's bound to crawl under the couch at one point or another.
Granted, wireless mice can be very useful for a lot of people in many situations (conferences with laptops and projectors come to mind), but in a domestic environment, I'd rather keep my mouse on a leash.
So, the "innovation" won't be in making quiet fans, it will be in making top of the line FAST chips that don't require them.
Exactly. You hit the nail on the head. Somebody mod this guy up.
I'm thinking desktop computers here, as I don't have a laptop.
1. A rechargeable 5-minute battery so that in case there's a blackout, you have a chance to save your documents, grab a flashlight or candles without fumbling in the dark, then properly shut down the computer.
Picture a miniature version of a laptop battery and forget about buying a twenty-pound power backup that costs a bundle.
2. RCA jacks on the back of a desktop should be standard, to hook up to the TV with no hassle. They're probably out there, but mine doesn't have them, and I haven't seen one that does.
3. Monitors should have touch-screen input, too. To scroll Google Maps with a finger, for example.
4. Integration with programmable, universal remote controls for a few basic functions (Shut Down, Volume Up, Volume Down, you get the idea).
5. Integrated Bose speakers, baby! Yeah! Okay, so what the hell, a little kick-ass luxury would be nice, too.
Yes indeed. Cape Canaveral is used for attaining equatorial orbit, while Vandenberg is used for circumpolar orbit. There have been no manned circumpolar missions at all, ever. None. Just the occasional scientific or military satellite.