It's overcast and cloudy here nine months of the year, so if you want to use a telescope, you have to be really lucky, or use it during the summer months.
Back in the 60's and 70's there where plans to build a space station, more Moon exploration and landing on Mars using the so-called Nova rocket.
But Vietnam got in the way and budget cuts killed almost everything, only the space shuttle survived by only one vote in congress.
And here we have the Iraq War, still not included in the budget, the growing non-Iraq military budget to support that useless war, and the interest we have to pay to service the debt for all of the above.
History is harsh to those who refuse to learn it's lessons.
Amusingly, both Congress and the White House have spent more time investigating the Isreali-produced Snort than they have investigating either the Dubai buying US ports or making a deal to allow India to receive US nuclear technology even though they won't permit inspections of their military nuclear facilities.
There has been no update for backwards compatible games on the 360 since December. What the hell is taking so long?
Maybe they think we're all tech geeks who only care about hardware, and don't actually want any games to play on our nice shiny useless boxes?
Seems to me they are probably pushing new games, none of which are out or will be before the other consoles ship, in some desperate attempt to catch the edge of the wave. I think they should realize you shouldn't aim for the crest unless you're boogy-boarding, sit on their board and get a decent surf with a reasonable break.
Actually, I'm the gal that does neither of them because baseball isn't exciting to me. Though Hockey on the other hand - and there I'd pay more for an NHL game because I've seen those games, and I've see the Seattle T-Birds, and I know I'd much rather watch an NHL game in person.
No argument there. I personally prefer watching soccer or baseball in person, mostly due to Ichiro. Hockey's fine, used to be on a team in school, used to watch games, nothing wrong with NHL, since it's back on the ice. More fun playing it IMHO, but to each his own.
How do you tally that with the fact that 360's are sold out pretty much everywhere? PGR3 is the best racing game ever (IMHO) and I bought mine just for that. Killer app in my opinion, but some people prefer others, and that's fine.
I tally that with the planned undershipment of xBox360's, as was detailed in the Wall Street Journal, which was used to create a crowd feel, and has worked quite nicely in maximizing profit per unit.
Me, I don't like racing games, except maybe Mario Kart. Did too much real racing. Don't like FPS either, spent too much time with real weapons in the Army, so it tenses me up when I play those and I get too serious.
Fence sitters will always be fence sitters. The PS3 won't be out in the US this year (I don't care what Sony say, the writing's on the wall), the Rev maybe by the fall. In the meantime the 360 has plenty of big games coming : GRAW, Gears of War, Oblivion, etc. XML Arcade is great because it allows MS to put out a steady stream of smaller games to keep interest up between the lulls which always appear in a new platform's initial few months. I don't see it as "desperate" though, far from it.
As I said, I bought an xBox within 2 months of introduction, so I wouldn't call me a fence sitter, heck I've shelled out $10,000 on a server because I wanted it. And I got it a lot cheaper than people who bought it at release. I just don't see the point in buying a pretty box that doesn't play anything I need yet. When the other consoles come out, I'll decide which one(s) I want - own a GameCube and an xBox and probably five GBAs plus ten computers. But so far no killer games from my view, only cross-platforms, so no real need to buy a 360 yet.
>>If it hits Australia, well, not much impact on earth population.
Well, aside from the possibility of tsunamis whipping across the Pacific and wiping out Chinese/Indian coastal cities anyway, I'd hazard a guess that Australians probably think the impact on earth's population would be pretty severe...
That's on a personal scale, not a worldwide population impact scale. For that matter, if it impacted on Washington DC, the density levels are pretty low there.
Naturally, I was thinking of it hitting, oh, say, around Alice Springs. Hopefully, the impact would be less there than a coastal area. If we presume that dinosaurs died out from an asteroidal impact just off the coast of Panama, on the eastern side, where it's shallow, the impact zone is magnified by the echo chamber formed by the ocean shores and the fairly low elevations.
Optimal would be some area lightly populated, inland, but with soils that might cushion such a blow.
We also need to consider the following:
1. At some point Yellowstone will blow and it will dramatically impact our ecosystem, based upon Krakatoa and other prior volcanic eruptions, as well as Yellowstone's geology and position in the airstreams.
2. Australia is, even today, lightly populated. A hit on the Eastern side of the continent would probably cause the least damage, due to the local of large populations near sea level to the Northwest of Australia. A hit at, say, Perth, would be catastrophic and cause tsunamis beyond belief. Even worse would be Rat Island just off Perth, which would be entirely surrounded by water.
3. The angle of impact may be critical. A direct vertical strike might cause greater earth tremors and rebound effects, a side strike at say 45 degrees might create a wave in the direction of impact, a more horizontal strike might burn up or even bounce off the earth's atmosphere, but could reduce atmosphere slightly.
4. Lots of people predict orbits based on, admittedly, very minimal data. We are projecting based on our current knowledge of orbital position and time, but a longer period of observation may correct our projections and find the asteroid will impact on the moon - which might be worse - or miss entirely. Over a period of just less than 100 years it is likely that orbital refinements of projected trajectories may shift, so I'm not going to stay up late worrying about this one.
5. Mothra will fly up and burn it up anyway, when we summon the Giant Moon Moth to our rescue. So it's all a moot point.
I think that we should all step back and see this announcement for what it truly is:
a. an admission that there are no Killer Games that make anyone rush out to buy the xBox 360, and thus a stop-gap until someone can be convinced to do one;
b. an admission that the competing next-gen platforms (PS3,NR) were wise to promote the use of older platform version games, and that this revival of older games for those platforms, but not for xBox360 for the most part, is really hurting MSFT on the revenue side (note: I own MSFT shares, so I want them to make revenue); and
c. a desperate attempt to yank back mind share from the other platforms, which haven't even been shipped yet, but which seem to have large numbers of potential xBox360 owners (such as myself who owns an xBox) waiting until the PS3 and NR consoles are released before making a buying decision.
Overall, not good. Spin it if you will, that's my gut feel. I usually make money from that.
I have nothing against bleach. I do know that the latest scientific paper I read on the subject showed that soap was equally or more effective than antibacterial soap, and that expensive antibacterial soaps were even worse.
Step away from the antibacterial dust spray can... back up slowly... make sure I can see your hands!
I'm also glad that it's easily made untrackable by the inadvertent application of heat.
I prefer using tin foil, myself.
Actually, it's a good thing I got my passport before all this and my non-RFID drivers license renewed this month, so it will be five years before the man tracks me... um, why is my shirt beeping?
Yesterday it was mind control sharks, and today its collision course astroids.
I think it's a clever plot by the mind control sharks to draw off attention from them and make us pay attention to the killer asteroids while they usurp control of our world leaders.
Anyone notice that the entire staff of the white house is wearing I Love Sharks pins today?
Now that the terrorists have infiltrated even suburban households in their quest of destruction, it's important to draw a greater distinction between the good-doers (such as government workers, Congressmen, jail wardens, etc.) and the evil-doers. When choosing names like "Total Information Awareness" we should take that into account. For a replacement name, I nominate "Patriotic Anti-Terrorist Child Protection Program." That's something we can all stand behind with pride.
I vote for Patriotic Anti-Terrorist Spy Environ (PATSE)
Producing more antibiotics will, most likely, make it worse, in that people will use even more antibiotics in situations that don't call for it, forcing higher drug resistance evolution.
Just use soap - it works better than soap with antibiotics, is a lot cheaper, and cuts the spread of influenza and other nasty diseases by half.
But the main point isn't what Forbes says, to develop more drugs to treat Drug Resistance.
A better point would be to take A Giant Rubber Mallet and Hit Up Side The Head anyone using anti-bacterial soaps, kleenex, sprays, cleaners, etc.
Just Use Soap
Seriously, this fad to use anti-bacterial soaps and cleansers:
a. does not work - many studies show that soap, by itself, works as well or better, and not even fancy soap at that, just basic soap
b. builds resistance to antibiotics
c. creates havoc in our streams and rivers as we flush them down our toilets, sinks, and shower/bathtubs
Now, if you want to talk Drug Resistance, I heard a fascinating seminar yesterday at the UW from Christopher Lee, on Mapping Evolutionary Pathways of HIV-1 Drug Resistance, presented by the Center for Computational Biology. He's got a website that has links to at least one of his papers. There he uses evolutionary pathways predictions of Ka/Ks to manipulate viral evolution in ways that you can either slow the drug resistance evolution or force it to evolve into a the equivalent of low-energy traps they have a hard time evolving out of.
No, the reason Sony is delaying PS3 is so there will be enough music and video titles to play on the PS3 when it releases.
They also want to use early Blu-Ray adopters to test the hardware, so they can fix any bugs before they ship the PS3 which comes with Blu-Ray installed. Just picture yourself as a guinea pig if you buy one.
That said, I still fail to see any reason to do anything except wait until they actually release the PS3, which will play Blu-Ray anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
It's overcast and cloudy here nine months of the year, so if you want to use a telescope, you have to be really lucky, or use it during the summer months.
Back in the 60's and 70's there where plans to build a space station, more Moon exploration and landing on Mars using the so-called Nova rocket.
But Vietnam got in the way and budget cuts killed almost everything, only the space shuttle survived by only one vote in congress.
And here we have the Iraq War, still not included in the budget, the growing non-Iraq military budget to support that useless war, and the interest we have to pay to service the debt for all of the above.
History is harsh to those who refuse to learn it's lessons.
Seriously, why are we noticing the small mouse (NASA budget) eaten, when there's the large cat (Iraq War) that gobbled it up in the first place.
I predict it will continue to get worse, so long as we keep ignoring the large cat.
And taking all the dog food (social security reserves) we set aside for the guard dog (our US work force) that actually lives here.
Good thing that Europe, Japan, and China are all actively exploring Space.
Amusingly, both Congress and the White House have spent more time investigating the Isreali-produced Snort than they have investigating either the Dubai buying US ports or making a deal to allow India to receive US nuclear technology even though they won't permit inspections of their military nuclear facilities.
Hypocrisy is rampant.
There has been no update for backwards compatible games on the 360 since December. What the hell is taking so long?
Maybe they think we're all tech geeks who only care about hardware, and don't actually want any games to play on our nice shiny useless boxes?
Seems to me they are probably pushing new games, none of which are out or will be before the other consoles ship, in some desperate attempt to catch the edge of the wave. I think they should realize you shouldn't aim for the crest unless you're boogy-boarding, sit on their board and get a decent surf with a reasonable break.
Actually, I'm the gal that does neither of them because baseball isn't exciting to me. Though Hockey on the other hand - and there I'd pay more for an NHL game because I've seen those games, and I've see the Seattle T-Birds, and I know I'd much rather watch an NHL game in person.
No argument there. I personally prefer watching soccer or baseball in person, mostly due to Ichiro. Hockey's fine, used to be on a team in school, used to watch games, nothing wrong with NHL, since it's back on the ice. More fun playing it IMHO, but to each his own.
How do you tally that with the fact that 360's are sold out pretty much everywhere? PGR3 is the best racing game ever (IMHO) and I bought mine just for that. Killer app in my opinion, but some people prefer others, and that's fine.
I tally that with the planned undershipment of xBox360's, as was detailed in the Wall Street Journal, which was used to create a crowd feel, and has worked quite nicely in maximizing profit per unit.
Me, I don't like racing games, except maybe Mario Kart. Did too much real racing. Don't like FPS either, spent too much time with real weapons in the Army, so it tenses me up when I play those and I get too serious.
Fence sitters will always be fence sitters. The PS3 won't be out in the US this year (I don't care what Sony say, the writing's on the wall), the Rev maybe by the fall. In the meantime the 360 has plenty of big games coming : GRAW, Gears of War, Oblivion, etc. XML Arcade is great because it allows MS to put out a steady stream of smaller games to keep interest up between the lulls which always appear in a new platform's initial few months. I don't see it as "desperate" though, far from it.
As I said, I bought an xBox within 2 months of introduction, so I wouldn't call me a fence sitter, heck I've shelled out $10,000 on a server because I wanted it. And I got it a lot cheaper than people who bought it at release. I just don't see the point in buying a pretty box that doesn't play anything I need yet. When the other consoles come out, I'll decide which one(s) I want - own a GameCube and an xBox and probably five GBAs plus ten computers. But so far no killer games from my view, only cross-platforms, so no real need to buy a 360 yet.
Sometimes one experience is better enough than the other that you're willing to pay more.
...
So, you're the guy paying $100 for a Mariner's ticket while I get a $10 ticket from the UW HUB with equally good sight lines
That said, I think having classic games is cool, I just don't think one should pay exhorbitant rates to play them.
Doesn't anyone know their history? The Mayans said December. Estimates are normally 2011 or 2012, so this sounds about right.
...
I thought the original Toltec predictions had it on July 4th, 2002
Dang, I've been using the wrong calendar!
>>If it hits Australia, well, not much impact on earth population.
Well, aside from the possibility of tsunamis whipping across the Pacific and wiping out Chinese/Indian coastal cities anyway, I'd hazard a guess that Australians probably think the impact on earth's population would be pretty severe...
That's on a personal scale, not a worldwide population impact scale. For that matter, if it impacted on Washington DC, the density levels are pretty low there.
Naturally, I was thinking of it hitting, oh, say, around Alice Springs. Hopefully, the impact would be less there than a coastal area. If we presume that dinosaurs died out from an asteroidal impact just off the coast of Panama, on the eastern side, where it's shallow, the impact zone is magnified by the echo chamber formed by the ocean shores and the fairly low elevations.
Optimal would be some area lightly populated, inland, but with soils that might cushion such a blow.
We also need to consider the following:
1. At some point Yellowstone will blow and it will dramatically impact our ecosystem, based upon Krakatoa and other prior volcanic eruptions, as well as Yellowstone's geology and position in the airstreams.
2. Australia is, even today, lightly populated. A hit on the Eastern side of the continent would probably cause the least damage, due to the local of large populations near sea level to the Northwest of Australia. A hit at, say, Perth, would be catastrophic and cause tsunamis beyond belief. Even worse would be Rat Island just off Perth, which would be entirely surrounded by water.
3. The angle of impact may be critical. A direct vertical strike might cause greater earth tremors and rebound effects, a side strike at say 45 degrees might create a wave in the direction of impact, a more horizontal strike might burn up or even bounce off the earth's atmosphere, but could reduce atmosphere slightly.
4. Lots of people predict orbits based on, admittedly, very minimal data. We are projecting based on our current knowledge of orbital position and time, but a longer period of observation may correct our projections and find the asteroid will impact on the moon - which might be worse - or miss entirely. Over a period of just less than 100 years it is likely that orbital refinements of projected trajectories may shift, so I'm not going to stay up late worrying about this one.
5. Mothra will fly up and burn it up anyway, when we summon the Giant Moon Moth to our rescue. So it's all a moot point.
Who the hell would buy these? They've been available for free over the Internet (via MAME, etc.) for the better part of a decade.
The same people who pay 99 cents to have jokes text messaged to them, not groking that that means shelling out $365 bucks a year plus tax.
plus
The same people who pay $20 for a burger, when you can buy one at Dick's in Seattle for 99 cents.
I think that we should all step back and see this announcement for what it truly is:
a. an admission that there are no Killer Games that make anyone rush out to buy the xBox 360, and thus a stop-gap until someone can be convinced to do one;
b. an admission that the competing next-gen platforms (PS3,NR) were wise to promote the use of older platform version games, and that this revival of older games for those platforms, but not for xBox360 for the most part, is really hurting MSFT on the revenue side (note: I own MSFT shares, so I want them to make revenue); and
c. a desperate attempt to yank back mind share from the other platforms, which haven't even been shipped yet, but which seem to have large numbers of potential xBox360 owners (such as myself who owns an xBox) waiting until the PS3 and NR consoles are released before making a buying decision.
Overall, not good. Spin it if you will, that's my gut feel. I usually make money from that.
What we need is a video game that'll teach kids to violently beat sharks to death, mind powers or not. Only then will our future be safe!
But they may need training in dodging lasers first. Some of those sharks have frickin' lasers on their foreheads, and may be ill-tempered.
Not only that, but this obsessive cleanliness is probably the major cause of asthma and other related chronic allergic conditions.
...
See, I'm helping my son grow up well by being messy! That's what I should say
I have nothing against bleach. I do know that the latest scientific paper I read on the subject showed that soap was equally or more effective than antibacterial soap, and that expensive antibacterial soaps were even worse.
... back up slowly ... make sure I can see your hands!
Step away from the antibacterial dust spray can
I'm also glad that it's easily made untrackable by the inadvertent application of heat.
... um, why is my shirt beeping?
I prefer using tin foil, myself.
Actually, it's a good thing I got my passport before all this and my non-RFID drivers license renewed this month, so it will be five years before the man tracks me
Yesterday it was mind control sharks, and today its collision course astroids.
I think it's a clever plot by the mind control sharks to draw off attention from them and make us pay attention to the killer asteroids while they usurp control of our world leaders.
Anyone notice that the entire staff of the white house is wearing I Love Sharks pins today?
and spewing dust and rock into our atmosphere.
Heck, the effects of global warming are probably bigger.
Unless the asteroid hits a densely populated area of the earth, like China, or India. If it hits Australia, well, not much impact on earth population.
Besides, in 2102 I'll be dead. My head will be in a jar, recounting how our civilization failed to aliens from another planet.
Now that the terrorists have infiltrated even suburban households in their quest of destruction, it's important to draw a greater distinction between the good-doers (such as government workers, Congressmen, jail wardens, etc.) and the evil-doers. When choosing names like "Total Information Awareness" we should take that into account. For a replacement name, I nominate "Patriotic Anti-Terrorist Child Protection Program." That's something we can all stand behind with pride.
I vote for Patriotic Anti-Terrorist Spy Environ (PATSE)
All hail our benevolent dictator King and his Royal Guard! ... um, is the microphone on my monitor off yet? ...
They never intended to get rid of it, they just gave it a name change so the media would stop asking questions.
Aren't you glad your new US passport has a trackable RFID in it, Citizen Comrade?
Producing more antibiotics will, most likely, make it worse, in that people will use even more antibiotics in situations that don't call for it, forcing higher drug resistance evolution.
Just use soap - it works better than soap with antibiotics, is a lot cheaper, and cuts the spread of influenza and other nasty diseases by half.
That's what we do at the UW.
But the main point isn't what Forbes says, to develop more drugs to treat Drug Resistance.
A better point would be to take A Giant Rubber Mallet and Hit Up Side The Head anyone using anti-bacterial soaps, kleenex, sprays, cleaners, etc.
Just
Use
Soap
Seriously, this fad to use anti-bacterial soaps and cleansers:
a. does not work - many studies show that soap, by itself, works as well or better, and not even fancy soap at that, just basic soap
b. builds resistance to antibiotics
c. creates havoc in our streams and rivers as we flush them down our toilets, sinks, and shower/bathtubs
Now, if you want to talk Drug Resistance, I heard a fascinating seminar yesterday at the UW from Christopher Lee, on Mapping Evolutionary Pathways of HIV-1 Drug Resistance, presented by the Center for Computational Biology. He's got a website that has links to at least one of his papers. There he uses evolutionary pathways predictions of Ka/Ks to manipulate viral evolution in ways that you can either slow the drug resistance evolution or force it to evolve into a the equivalent of low-energy traps they have a hard time evolving out of.
No, the reason Sony is delaying PS3 is so there will be enough music and video titles to play on the PS3 when it releases.
They also want to use early Blu-Ray adopters to test the hardware, so they can fix any bugs before they ship the PS3 which comes with Blu-Ray installed. Just picture yourself as a guinea pig if you buy one.
That said, I still fail to see any reason to do anything except wait until they actually release the PS3, which will play Blu-Ray anyway.
Side note: Who do we have to kill to get the XMBC team to release a commercial XB360 version?
Best hope we have is that new game with the big guns. I think the 360 platform was killed for lack of Must Have games.