Bah, they just wasted time sitting around complaining "Man, I wish someone would invent writing so we would have something to read around here!" and talking about sports.
Someone who is truly lazy would consider it a pain to even learn ONE more app or OS. At the last place I worked the IT staff wouldn't even acknowledge Firefox and used the term "I need you to open up the internet" as if it were synonymous with "I need you to start up Internet Explorer." Tell them you had Firefox and they would literally send out a tech the next day to remove it from your computer (I even had to hide the icon). Ostensibly this was for "security reasons" (laughable in light of the fact that IE is the most unsecured browser on the market).
Do you have any idea how many Bacon Double Cheeseburgers you can get out of a single pig and cow? You would throw all that deliciousness away just to get a 40-page article in Forensic Science Quarterly that comes to the final conclusion "They sink"?
It probably also makes it a lot easier on the IT support staff. They don't have to deal with a million different browsers, OS's, etc. They can just learn the MS stuff and sit on their asses never learning anything else.
In 60,000 years we've progressed from scratching symbols on eggshells and shitting in caves to producing electronic television shows like "Jersey Shore" and "The Hills." How far we've come.
As I said, a meaningless sentiment if you still do it. I don't really care if the guy who robs me feels guilty about doing it or not. I just don't want him to rob me. Google has stopped robbing (for now). Again, not really so important that they're doing the right thing now for the wrong reasons. But they're hardly heroes for doing either the wrong thing and feeling guilty about it, or doing the right thing only when their profits are threatened. They're hardly taking a risk either way.
A sequel to this masterpiece should have been already been out. Valve spends way too much effort developing the latest bit of overblown DLC for the 6-year-old title they've been milking to death (Half-Life 2) and it's only now that they're even ANNOUNCING a sequel to their best property by far? Portal is their best property, and they seem to treat it as an red-headed afterthought to Gordon Freeman's latest round of sewer running.
In fact, criticizing our government openly and publicly is one of the greatest freedoms we have.
That's because most politicians learned a long time ago that any criticism can be rendered meaningless, when you can simply buy your election with a slew of campaign ads and a good dose of fear tactics and political manipulation.
Are you saying they were unhappy when they did it or that they didn't do it? Because the former may be possible (if meaningless), but the latter is undeniable.
And obviously, you've been reading TOO MUCH Heinlein. Imagination is fine. But there is a difference between realistic dreams and delusional fantasies. Settlers will only settle in an area if they have a chance of not only surviving, but thriving. There is no other planet or body in this solar system where humans can, or will likely ever be able to (barring some VERY major advances here on earth), do *either*. And yes, it's true that things change. But fundamental things don't. People don't settle in places just because they can. They do it because they think they can make their fortunes there. And no fortune awaits on the moon or Mars, just an unsustainable nightmare that would be infinitely more inhospitable than just about any spot on Earth. Again, no gold mine, no farmland--just vacuum and radiation.
So, even if humans did find a way to survive on the moon or Mars (which I seriously doubt), an even more important question is "Why would they want to?"
Don't be. The only reason they are doing this is because China directly threatened their bottom line by trying to steal some of Google's proprietary source code (their bread and butter). Before China did that, Google was more than happy to censor their search results and hand over dissidents just like everyone else. Google isn't taking on China to protect innocents, they're doing it to send a message to China that if you hit Google's money train, they will hit back.
Only in this case it's a barren way station that only leads to other barren rocks. If there were a planet out there in this solar system that had earth-like atmospheric pressure, a reasonable amount of oxygen, some sort of radiation-shielding atmosphere, etc. I could see that as an argument. But there is nothing out there even remotely survivable or sustainable. There is no end-game here. The moon is just a pointless exercise that only leads to other, even more pointless, exercises. There is no Napa Valley or gold mine waiting on the other side of those plains.
And at least Kansas was a place where you could grow wheat.
Way more than on the moon--and it's got free oxygen, survivable atmospheric pressure, and survivable levels of solar radiation to boot. It's also a helluva lot easier to get to the than the moon.
Sure, the moon will prove less attractive than Antarctica to any rational human settlers, but who DOESN'T want to settle in Antarctica right? Anyone?
But in all seriousness, if you dropped a 600 million metric ton ice cub into the ocean, what would happen?
The first thing that would happen is scientists all over the world would ask you how you managed to marshal the incredible resources needed for such a feat, followed by questions of how you managed to get it through the atmosphere without it breaking up. Next would come the numerous islanders and coastal dwellers looking to string you up from the nearest tree for wiping out large swaths of the coast and killing hundreds of thousands of people.
That's because an oral promise is worthless when the party making the promise has a huge incentive to break it. It's like all these telco's/cableco's in the U.S. right now objecting to net neutrality laws. Sure, they promise to maintain net neutrality--but the second the FCC or Congress wants to HOLD them to that promise with a law, suddenly they're up in arms. They know a law comes with actual penalties, whereas a promise can be later finessed away with spin into meaninglessness.
Hey, maybe SETI can use this to finally find those little green men they're after. "We made a guge breakthrough today when we partially reconstructed a piece of alien porn from some noise near Centauri!"
Slashdot Mirror
Bah, they just wasted time sitting around complaining "Man, I wish someone would invent writing so we would have something to read around here!" and talking about sports.
Someone who is truly lazy would consider it a pain to even learn ONE more app or OS. At the last place I worked the IT staff wouldn't even acknowledge Firefox and used the term "I need you to open up the internet" as if it were synonymous with "I need you to start up Internet Explorer." Tell them you had Firefox and they would literally send out a tech the next day to remove it from your computer (I even had to hide the icon). Ostensibly this was for "security reasons" (laughable in light of the fact that IE is the most unsecured browser on the market).
Do you have any idea how many Bacon Double Cheeseburgers you can get out of a single pig and cow? You would throw all that deliciousness away just to get a 40-page article in Forensic Science Quarterly that comes to the final conclusion "They sink"?
It probably also makes it a lot easier on the IT support staff. They don't have to deal with a million different browsers, OS's, etc. They can just learn the MS stuff and sit on their asses never learning anything else.
In 60,000 years we've progressed from scratching symbols on eggshells and shitting in caves to producing electronic television shows like "Jersey Shore" and "The Hills." How far we've come.
The GLaDOS is a lie.
As I said, a meaningless sentiment if you still do it. I don't really care if the guy who robs me feels guilty about doing it or not. I just don't want him to rob me. Google has stopped robbing (for now). Again, not really so important that they're doing the right thing now for the wrong reasons. But they're hardly heroes for doing either the wrong thing and feeling guilty about it, or doing the right thing only when their profits are threatened. They're hardly taking a risk either way.
A sequel to this masterpiece should have been already been out. Valve spends way too much effort developing the latest bit of overblown DLC for the 6-year-old title they've been milking to death (Half-Life 2) and it's only now that they're even ANNOUNCING a sequel to their best property by far? Portal is their best property, and they seem to treat it as an red-headed afterthought to Gordon Freeman's latest round of sewer running.
That's because most politicians learned a long time ago that any criticism can be rendered meaningless, when you can simply buy your election with a slew of campaign ads and a good dose of fear tactics and political manipulation.
Are you saying they were unhappy when they did it or that they didn't do it? Because the former may be possible (if meaningless), but the latter is undeniable.
Like Tiger, they also don't pull out.
And obviously, you've been reading TOO MUCH Heinlein. Imagination is fine. But there is a difference between realistic dreams and delusional fantasies. Settlers will only settle in an area if they have a chance of not only surviving, but thriving. There is no other planet or body in this solar system where humans can, or will likely ever be able to (barring some VERY major advances here on earth), do *either*. And yes, it's true that things change. But fundamental things don't. People don't settle in places just because they can. They do it because they think they can make their fortunes there. And no fortune awaits on the moon or Mars, just an unsustainable nightmare that would be infinitely more inhospitable than just about any spot on Earth. Again, no gold mine, no farmland--just vacuum and radiation.
So, even if humans did find a way to survive on the moon or Mars (which I seriously doubt), an even more important question is "Why would they want to?"
Don't be. The only reason they are doing this is because China directly threatened their bottom line by trying to steal some of Google's proprietary source code (their bread and butter). Before China did that, Google was more than happy to censor their search results and hand over dissidents just like everyone else. Google isn't taking on China to protect innocents, they're doing it to send a message to China that if you hit Google's money train, they will hit back.
Sorry, we only do evil.
Only in this case it's a barren way station that only leads to other barren rocks. If there were a planet out there in this solar system that had earth-like atmospheric pressure, a reasonable amount of oxygen, some sort of radiation-shielding atmosphere, etc. I could see that as an argument. But there is nothing out there even remotely survivable or sustainable. There is no end-game here. The moon is just a pointless exercise that only leads to other, even more pointless, exercises. There is no Napa Valley or gold mine waiting on the other side of those plains.
And at least Kansas was a place where you could grow wheat.
How dare you use logic when peoples dreams are involved!!!
Way more than on the moon--and it's got free oxygen, survivable atmospheric pressure, and survivable levels of solar radiation to boot. It's also a helluva lot easier to get to the than the moon.
Sure, the moon will prove less attractive than Antarctica to any rational human settlers, but who DOESN'T want to settle in Antarctica right? Anyone?
Why would you settle there in the first place, when it's a barren rock? Sure ice makes the moon SLIGHTLY more survivable, but to what end?
Oh, and Heinlein was a hack. He was only slightly more talented than uber-hacks like Hubbard and Harlan Ellison.
The first thing that would happen is scientists all over the world would ask you how you managed to marshal the incredible resources needed for such a feat, followed by questions of how you managed to get it through the atmosphere without it breaking up. Next would come the numerous islanders and coastal dwellers looking to string you up from the nearest tree for wiping out large swaths of the coast and killing hundreds of thousands of people.
If they're going all the way to the moon and back just for water, you had better specify "some really STUPID miners."
That's because an oral promise is worthless when the party making the promise has a huge incentive to break it. It's like all these telco's/cableco's in the U.S. right now objecting to net neutrality laws. Sure, they promise to maintain net neutrality--but the second the FCC or Congress wants to HOLD them to that promise with a law, suddenly they're up in arms. They know a law comes with actual penalties, whereas a promise can be later finessed away with spin into meaninglessness.
Posted this in the wrong place. But, yeah, good for you Germany!
Hey, maybe SETI can use this to finally find those little green men they're after. "We made a guge breakthrough today when we partially reconstructed a piece of alien porn from some noise near Centauri!"
Well, it does have electrolytes.
Well, look on the bright side. If they have to replace your console, at least it will have the side-effect of fixing your disc reading problem too.