Make them watchdogs again. My local example, the Los Angeles Times, is pretty much just a sock puppet for the state government. Reporters never ask follow up questions, and just nod their bubbleheads at whatever insane drivel politicians spout.
See "Transmetrolitian" by Warren Ellis for a template.
Quote: "I want to see humans talking about human life personally. I want to see people who give a shit about the world. I want... I want to see posessed journalists! YES! I want to see people like me rising upp with hate, laying about them with fiery eyes and steaming genetalia--possessed by ancient volcano gods from the polynesian islands, waving vast breasts and improbable penises at the secret chiefs of the world--naked glowing god-journalists browntrousering the naughty twenty-four hours a day, a new planet earth"
To paraphrase Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now, give me ten newsrooms full of these possessed journalists, and our problems here will be over very quickly.
I guess I need to ditch my science project of harvesting my intestines for bacteria and rapid-growing them into intelligent bipedal slave labour forces.
Why should I care anymore? I'm serious, not being trolly here. We get so many promises about space decade after decade that never pan out to even a fraction of what was projected. Why should I not see your shiny prognostications as just more dreams that will evaporate when we wake up to some problem or pragmatic issue?
And like I implied, absolutely none of that matters to anyone outside geekville. The IBM PC was what finally and fully put the acronym into popular culture. That's all I'm saying.
Yes, but it was the IBM PC that put it into much more common use.
Look, I'm not saying it's correct, but that's what the culture has decided. You can trot out geeky pedantry all day and night, but it doesn't matter to society at large.
It has an actual etymology: "PC" is a relic of the original "IBM PC" in 1981. The "IBM" got dropped when the first clones appeared about a year later. It was already just "PC" when the first Mac was sold in 1984. It became "PC" and "Mac" to differentiate.
I don't recall anyone referring to the (pre-Mac) Apples, Ataris or Commodore machines as PCs. Some might have, but it was IBM's box that popularized the acronym, and it has stuck ever since. "PC" means a computer descended from the original IBM standard.
The street (society) determines what terms mean. See the lost hacker/cracker war for another example.
I read some Brian Greene in high school and have since become a little flustered with string theory... or rather the many variations.
What? You mean the idea that we are all points in a 2D information plane and that our perceived realty is just a holographic illusion doesn't make perfect sense?
Elaborate models with a thousand knobs to tune so it matches any possible experimental observation don't sit right with you?
...it's just a bigger shame with each discovery we couldn't field a proper orbiter to Pluto to poke around for months. Yeah, I know all the problems in accomplishing that, but still...
And even when they had them, they didn't know what to do. Liquid Television on MTV spawned Beavis & Butthead (hey, even if you hated them, they became pretty big) and Aeon Flux and whatnot, but LT itself was never nurtured or renewed or anything. It aired seemingly at random and never had new episodes. FFS, is it that hard to go out and find animated short films by students/amateurs who'd jump at the chance to have their work aired on a national network?
Really? Wow. All those years I had an Apple laptop (with dual boot capability into OS X or WinXP) sometimes connected to my TV to play games (such as KOTOR with a game controller) I installed myself were just a hallucination, I guess.
The equestrian cycling events are my favorite, but there's always room for improvement, such as preventing their tails from getting caught up in the rear wheel or the gears.
Slashdot Mirror
Make them watchdogs again. My local example, the Los Angeles Times, is pretty much just a sock puppet for the state government. Reporters never ask follow up questions, and just nod their bubbleheads at whatever insane drivel politicians spout.
See "Transmetrolitian" by Warren Ellis for a template.
Quote: "I want to see humans talking about human life personally. I want to see people who give a shit about the world. I want... I want to see posessed journalists! YES! I want to see people like me rising upp with hate, laying about them with fiery eyes and steaming genetalia--possessed by ancient volcano gods from the polynesian islands, waving vast breasts and improbable penises at the secret chiefs of the world--naked glowing god-journalists browntrousering the naughty twenty-four hours a day, a new planet earth"
To paraphrase Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now, give me ten newsrooms full of these possessed journalists, and our problems here will be over very quickly.
Exciting, isn't it?
I guess I need to ditch my science project of harvesting my intestines for bacteria and rapid-growing them into intelligent bipedal slave labour forces.
Dude! Kickstarter!
And yet this meme seems many times older.
The word you are looking for is "coprolite". True story.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprolite
SCIENCE!
taken a gene from 500-million-year-old bacteria and inserted it into modern E. coli bacteria.
Well that's just rude.
Am I trotting out geeky pedantry?
Yes, in spades. Etymology is also the study of how words evolve and change in their usage over time, not just origins.
I never said IBM invented it. I think we're actually in basic agreement.
Don't you know how to use the shells?
Why should I care anymore? I'm serious, not being trolly here. We get so many promises about space decade after decade that never pan out to even a fraction of what was projected. Why should I not see your shiny prognostications as just more dreams that will evaporate when we wake up to some problem or pragmatic issue?
And like I implied, absolutely none of that matters to anyone outside geekville. The IBM PC was what finally and fully put the acronym into popular culture. That's all I'm saying.
Yes, but it was the IBM PC that put it into much more common use.
Look, I'm not saying it's correct, but that's what the culture has decided. You can trot out geeky pedantry all day and night, but it doesn't matter to society at large.
It has an actual etymology: "PC" is a relic of the original "IBM PC" in 1981. The "IBM" got dropped when the first clones appeared about a year later. It was already just "PC" when the first Mac was sold in 1984. It became "PC" and "Mac" to differentiate.
I don't recall anyone referring to the (pre-Mac) Apples, Ataris or Commodore machines as PCs. Some might have, but it was IBM's box that popularized the acronym, and it has stuck ever since. "PC" means a computer descended from the original IBM standard.
The street (society) determines what terms mean. See the lost hacker/cracker war for another example.
I read some Brian Greene in high school and have since become a little flustered with string theory ... or rather the many variations.
What? You mean the idea that we are all points in a 2D information plane and that our perceived realty is just a holographic illusion doesn't make perfect sense?
Elaborate models with a thousand knobs to tune so it matches any possible experimental observation don't sit right with you?
You some kinda anarchist or something?
Dunno. You can't explain it.
Yes, I feel much of the shame for memeing.
(Insert socially awkward penguin)
Conservadroids
o.O Is that a new phone?
Is it a red, green or blue one?
...it's just a bigger shame with each discovery we couldn't field a proper orbiter to Pluto to poke around for months. Yeah, I know all the problems in accomplishing that, but still...
And even when they had them, they didn't know what to do. Liquid Television on MTV spawned Beavis & Butthead (hey, even if you hated them, they became pretty big) and Aeon Flux and whatnot, but LT itself was never nurtured or renewed or anything. It aired seemingly at random and never had new episodes. FFS, is it that hard to go out and find animated short films by students/amateurs who'd jump at the chance to have their work aired on a national network?
What do you think this is, some sort of high speed electromagnetic thing that can be updated at a whim? AT A WHIM?!
Geez, you kids today are so demanding.
Really? Wow. All those years I had an Apple laptop (with dual boot capability into OS X or WinXP) sometimes connected to my TV to play games (such as KOTOR with a game controller) I installed myself were just a hallucination, I guess.
but why exactly is it needed?
Why not?
Another fine lesson in Slashdot Economic Theory brought to you by the letter G and the number zero.
Exactly what I was aiming for. WINNING!
...but horses *in* swimsuits!
And presumably new bicycles designs...
The equestrian cycling events are my favorite, but there's always room for improvement, such as preventing their tails from getting caught up in the rear wheel or the gears.
$RANDOM_PONY_REFERENCE
Um... kay...