My first thought was "Hey, I know how Johnathan Hillstrand can get Phil Harris back for that truck practical joke on 'Deadliest Catch' this season!" Sure, Phil will lose a few crab, but think of the laugh the home audience will have when they offload.
Every country but one in the entire industrialized world would seem to disagree. And considering how overpriced, overstrained, and underserved the system is in that one holdout, I think the majority has a point.
No one has ever even figured out how to set up a working independent biosphere here on earth. Maybe we should focus on that much simpler task before we go off building moonbases.
With VPNs and proxies, you can get around it pretty easily
Ha, I can't even get around my blocking software at work with proxies. You think China isn't going to be smart enough to block proxies and proxy lists, or reset odd VPN connections? Shit, even Websense is smart enough to do stuff like that.
Besides, the fear factor is what's REALLY going to scare most Chinese into avoiding "bad" sites. They're probably more afraid of being logged than blocked.
The amount of resources, time, and energy we would have to expend to maintain a sustainable biosphere on earth are several orders of magnitude less that it would take to travel to a distant planet and establish a whole new biosphere from scratch in an environment that doesn't even possess a survivable atmosphere.
No, I just want to go FORWARD to universal health care, more aid for impoverished nations, and all the other stuff we could be funding ahead of Joe Boomer's dreams of a Flash Gordon future.
Hillary Clinton would promise chocolate milk the in the water fountains if it got her elected. Whether she has any intention of actually ever delivering on such bold promises is HIGHLY suspect. And it's a moot point anyway, now. Her campaign is already floating dead in space.
As someone who is extremely skeptical myself of the value of space exploration, I think it would be just as important to ask conversely "Where are the space critics?" The whole idea of space exploration seems to elicit and great big "ho hum" from the American people now (not sure about the rest of the world). Politicians are neither willing to adequately support it nor actively oppose it. So NASA limps along with neither the funding boost to actually go to the moon/Mars nor the funding cut necessary to move the space program entirely into the private domain.
Personally, I would love nothing better than the abolish NASA and move this whole thing over to the private sector. If the work is truly as important as NASA supporters assert, they should have no problem getting private funding (as companies like Scaled Composites did). If it isn't that important, and it's just some baby-boomer pipe dream, than the market will reflect that too.
Either way, the leaders of this country need to make up their mind whether they ACTUALLY want to do what they claim and send men to the moon/Mars (in which case they need to seriously boost NASA's funding) or whether they need to just scrap the whole thing altogether and stop bullshitting us about lofty goals that they have no intention of funding adequately.
It was an open game, not a sandbox (I meant GTA as the sandbox title). It had lots of wide open spaces and dynamic enemies. Doom 3 feels terribly claustrophobic and contrived by comparison, a throwback to a time when wide open spaces, triggered enemies, and rails were the norm.
Is running down and endless series of boring hallways, triggering bad guys who appear out of thin air, really going to cut it in this era of open FPS's and sandbox games like Half-life 2, GTA, Crysis, et. al.?
I know this isn't going to be a popular opinion here, but two of the big downsides of open source software to me are the lack of documentation and the lack of quality control. Sure, OSS has THEORETICAL quality control (because anyone can review it), but how often does that REALLY happen? If someone slipped in a virus into some OSS program (especially easy if they distribute it as a binary), how long, if ever, would it be before anyone caught it?
I'm not saying commercial software is perfect in that regard (there have been cases of commerically distributed software containing malware too), but at least there is generally some level of quality control there.
I worry that this portends a day when consoles (and even blu-ray movie players) will REQUIRE an internet connection and do something similar to verify their games/movies. While piracy isn't as big an issue with console games/DVD's/Blu-ray's, it could set the precenent for a world where every piece of media we play would have the equivalent of a "Windows Genuine Advantage" check to function.
And, of course, this isn't unprecented (on the DVD side, at least). Something very similar was done with the evil DIVX format in the late 90's
If you eliminate heat and AC, that explains it right there. Those are, by FAR, the biggest chucks of my electricity bill. If I had gas for heat and no AC, I would probably never pay more than $20 a month for electricity.
Here in the U.S., our restrictions aren't that onerous. "Historically significant" buildings are relatively rare and most cities don't have much regulation of them (with notable exceptions like parts of Charleston, SC and certain small historic districts). The national designation of a "National Register of Historic Places" building basically just means you can't use federal funds to demolish or alter it (you're free to use private funds to do anything you like). Zoning laws, building codes, etc. are generally much more onerous than any special historical or cultural designation.
You know, I've heard a lot of people complain about that in the UK. Why on earth haven't they adopted AC yet? I know they have summers there, no?
Is it because it's really difficult to retrofit the buildings, or are they just too stubborn to change? I mean, it's not like AC is some radically new invention or something.
Oh yes, because Republicans NEVER villianize liberals. They're just thoughtful rationalists who would never resort to underhanded populist smear campaigns to make even the term "liberal" a politically poisonous word. All that reason and civility must explain why Republicans are so well-known for their pro-science stands, polite civil discourse, and highly-educated base.
Slashdot Mirror
My first thought was "Hey, I know how Johnathan Hillstrand can get Phil Harris back for that truck practical joke on 'Deadliest Catch' this season!" Sure, Phil will lose a few crab, but think of the laugh the home audience will have when they offload.
Every country but one in the entire industrialized world would seem to disagree. And considering how overpriced, overstrained, and underserved the system is in that one holdout, I think the majority has a point.
In an unrelated poll, 85% of Chinese feel afraid to give an honest opinion to poll-takers.
Jeez, you pinko, it's not like the Constitution forbids the military from borrowing your house if they need it.
No one has ever even figured out how to set up a working independent biosphere here on earth. Maybe we should focus on that much simpler task before we go off building moonbases.
Ha, I can't even get around my blocking software at work with proxies. You think China isn't going to be smart enough to block proxies and proxy lists, or reset odd VPN connections? Shit, even Websense is smart enough to do stuff like that.
Besides, the fear factor is what's REALLY going to scare most Chinese into avoiding "bad" sites. They're probably more afraid of being logged than blocked.
The amount of resources, time, and energy we would have to expend to maintain a sustainable biosphere on earth are several orders of magnitude less that it would take to travel to a distant planet and establish a whole new biosphere from scratch in an environment that doesn't even possess a survivable atmosphere.
No, I just want to go FORWARD to universal health care, more aid for impoverished nations, and all the other stuff we could be funding ahead of Joe Boomer's dreams of a Flash Gordon future.
Yes, Bush pushed hard for space exploration, if by "pushing hard" you mean "gave it a lot of lip service but didn't actually increase the budget."
The famous last words of many a dead daredevil
Hillary Clinton would promise chocolate milk the in the water fountains if it got her elected. Whether she has any intention of actually ever delivering on such bold promises is HIGHLY suspect. And it's a moot point anyway, now. Her campaign is already floating dead in space.
Sure hope there is at least one G.I. who likes midgets.
Personally, I would love nothing better than the abolish NASA and move this whole thing over to the private sector. If the work is truly as important as NASA supporters assert, they should have no problem getting private funding (as companies like Scaled Composites did). If it isn't that important, and it's just some baby-boomer pipe dream, than the market will reflect that too.
Either way, the leaders of this country need to make up their mind whether they ACTUALLY want to do what they claim and send men to the moon/Mars (in which case they need to seriously boost NASA's funding) or whether they need to just scrap the whole thing altogether and stop bullshitting us about lofty goals that they have no intention of funding adequately.
It was an open game, not a sandbox (I meant GTA as the sandbox title). It had lots of wide open spaces and dynamic enemies. Doom 3 feels terribly claustrophobic and contrived by comparison, a throwback to a time when wide open spaces, triggered enemies, and rails were the norm.
I had a 3.5 inch floppy from 1989 that I pull data off just a couple of years ago. They hold up surprisingly well sometimes.
Please God, tell me it's a hybrid!
Since the popular definition of troll seems to be "Anyone who posts anything that I disagree with," I shall label you a troll as well.
Is running down and endless series of boring hallways, triggering bad guys who appear out of thin air, really going to cut it in this era of open FPS's and sandbox games like Half-life 2, GTA, Crysis, et. al.?
I'm not saying commercial software is perfect in that regard (there have been cases of commerically distributed software containing malware too), but at least there is generally some level of quality control there.
And, of course, this isn't unprecented (on the DVD side, at least). Something very similar was done with the evil DIVX format in the late 90's
If you eliminate heat and AC, that explains it right there. Those are, by FAR, the biggest chucks of my electricity bill. If I had gas for heat and no AC, I would probably never pay more than $20 a month for electricity.
Here in the U.S., our restrictions aren't that onerous. "Historically significant" buildings are relatively rare and most cities don't have much regulation of them (with notable exceptions like parts of Charleston, SC and certain small historic districts). The national designation of a "National Register of Historic Places" building basically just means you can't use federal funds to demolish or alter it (you're free to use private funds to do anything you like). Zoning laws, building codes, etc. are generally much more onerous than any special historical or cultural designation.
But it's okay for Apple to only allow its iTunes music to be played on iPod's, huh?
You know, I've heard a lot of people complain about that in the UK. Why on earth haven't they adopted AC yet? I know they have summers there, no?
Is it because it's really difficult to retrofit the buildings, or are they just too stubborn to change? I mean, it's not like AC is some radically new invention or something.
Oh yes, because Republicans NEVER villianize liberals. They're just thoughtful rationalists who would never resort to underhanded populist smear campaigns to make even the term "liberal" a politically poisonous word. All that reason and civility must explain why Republicans are so well-known for their pro-science stands, polite civil discourse, and highly-educated base.