Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back [...]
Well, yes, but it's slightly different.
Star Trek and Star Wars were essentially about the stories. The characters don't grow and change and learn much during the stories--they are who they are. But they're fun characters and we want to see their further adventures.
Conversely, Cars is about the characters learning something about themselves. Lightning McQueen was a self-centered jerk who learned to not be a self-centered jerk. That was the point of the movie. I don't really care about the further adventures of the no-longer jerk Lightning McQueen. I'm content to know that he's now a nice person. Is there something else Lightning McQueen--and through him, ourselves--can learn? Maybe humility...
I don't know about all the sites on the moon but I'd vote for the first landing site of anything ever (Russian?) and the spot where a human being first walked.
Okay. Fair enough. How about the first landing on the moon, accomplished by Luna 9 (February 3, 1966)? How about the first wheeled vehicle on the moon (Lunokhod 1, November 17, 1970)? Does the ban include both the landing site and the final resting place of the vehicle (about 10 KM away?)
I don't necessarily have a problem with preserving the Apollo 11 landing site. But I think it will be just as awe inspiring with a rover track running across the footprints. And it would be just as awe-inspiring to see it in 2012 through the eyes of a rover as it would be to see it in person.
If I was in the X-Prize, I might avoid the Apollo 11 landing site. But how about Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, 17? How about Surveyor 5, 6, and 7? Luna 13, 16, 20, 21 (and, if you can find it, Lunokhod 2), and 24? Heck, if I had the skill, it might be interesting to visit some of the Ranger crash sites and see if there's any man-made debris from those lying around.
I'll agree that even if we avoided the "first" sites, I still think there's plenty of man-made stuff to send back images of and win the bonus money for the X-Prize.
If Apple does not release a new version of the iPhone at this conference, or soon there after I think it will be a mistake.
Define "soon."
Actually, Apple is at the top of the heap and people will consider waiting on them. So imagine this scenario:
WWDC. Apple gives it's song-and-dance about iPhone OS 3.0. Basically, the same one they gave back in March. They reiterate that it will be shipping "This Summer." Of course, they have lots of sessions at WWDC about iPhone OS 3.0. Various rumor sites insist that it will be July, then August, then September. Finally, around September 21st, Apple gives the press the word that they'll have some big announcement in mid-October. The few who point out that this is actually outside Apple's "Summer" promise are drowned by fanbois who insist that they'd rather have it perfect than on time. In mid-October, Apple announces the immediate availability of iPhone OS 3.0 and the latest version of the iPhone with an OLED display, support for AT&T's faster network, MMS, Copy and Paste, etc. etc.
Presto! Apple just got you to hold off buying that Pre/Storm 2/Android phone for 4 months. Needless to say, Palm's 2Q results come out and show that there weren't as many people buying the Pre as they had hoped. The press, never one to miss an opportunity, declares the Pre thoroughly beaten and once again proclaims Apple as king of the hill, top of the heap, unstoppable, etc. Sure, Apple also shows a slowdown in sales for that quarter, but says that it's due to people waiting for iPhone OS 3.0 and the inevitable new phone.
So is four months "soon"? If there's no new iPhone by August, will you run out an buy a Pre/Storm 2/Android phone? Or will you wait just a little bit longer...?
you can change your chances of survival in a plane as well.
The one I remember is to sit in the back of the plane.
Depends on the design of the plane, obviously, but the luggage tends to be in the back of most jetliners which, in theory, will provide more of a cushion in the event of a crash. Also, how many times have you heard of an airplane backing into ground?
Actually, I'll add another corner with the tourist.
Here we have a guy driving with his wife and kids, trying to follow a map. He's driving slowly in order to figure out where he is or looking out the window at the scenery. He will be surprised be the upcoming exit and will try to swerve across 4 lanes in order to make it.
I used to appreciate the fact that all rental cars in Florida had a license plate that started with a Y, so you knew who was a tourist and gave them a wide berth. Of course, when the criminals figured this out, they changed it so now you have to just guess.
Six good years of eyesight later, I started to develop an abnormality in my right now. Now, in my early thirties, I've been diagnosed with keratoconus in my right eye, and I might possibly have it in my left.
"I never should have had that trendy laser surgery. It was great at first but, you know, at the ten-year mark your eyes fall out."
P.S. If Palm had just gone to Apple and said "we want to make the Palm Pre sync with iTunes", would Apple have been reasonable about it? I saw a comment on Slashdot mentioning that there are non-Apple devices that sync with iTunes, implying that Apple can be reasonable.
That ability is left-over from the SoundJam days, which is why the list is so antiquated. I'm also pretty sure that whatever sync code there is for 3rd party devices was written by Apple, not the device manufacturer.
Personally, I think this is one of those, "Easier to ask forgiveness than permission" things. Assuming that Apple will sue Palm, this is just another thing that Apple can add to the list and will be worked out in whatever settlement Apple and Palm come to.
If you refuse, it's 2-5 years, depending whether or not you're a "terrorist suspect."
Of course, 2-5 years for not giving up your encryption key may be a better deal than, say, 10+ years for posession of kiddie porn or $100,000+ fines for illegally downloaded music.
You do understand the United States has had a very significant interest in underwater vehicles approaching it's shores, right?
Indeed they do. But I'd imagine these things are pretty quiet.
FTFA:
[...] underwater gliders move around by changing their buoyancy, that is they change their density such that they alternate between more dense and less dense than the surrounding ocean water. This change in buoyancy causes the glider to rise and sink in the ocean. The glider changes its density by moving a small piston forward and back that increases and decreases its volume. You may remember that you can calculate the density of an object by taking its mass and dividing that by the object's volume. Since the mass of the glider remains constant, all we need to do is change its volume. A small change in volume (about a half cup of water) is all the glider needs to change its density enough to rise and sink in the ocean.
I would imagine these things are pretty quiet. Run them about 50 feet underwater and I doubt the government would be able to hear them.
Dr. Foster: Would you please tell your son to stop? Ned's Dad: We can't do it, man! That's discipline! That's like tellin' Gene Krupa not to go [starts banging on the desk] "boom boom bam bam bam, boom boom bam bam bam, boom boom boom bam ba ba ba ba, da boo boo tss!" We don't believe in rules, like, we gave them up when we started livin' like freaky beatniks! Dr. Foster: You don't believe in rules, yet you want to control Ned's anger. Ned's Mom: Yeah. You gotta help us, Doc. We've tried nothin' and we're all out of ideas.
The second, more likely, explanation is that they want to enforce their own style of parenting on everyone.
Parent buys M-rated game for kid, believing that their kid can handle the "Adult themes." Kid shows other kids the game. Other kids go to their parents and say, "Can I have that game?" Other parents say, "No."
"Why not?!" whine the other kids.
"Because you're not mature enough." say the other parents.
"But this other kid has it! It's not fair!!"...and so it goes.
There are various different scenarios. Parent buys M-Rated game for teenage son. Teenage son gets bored with it. Little brother gets it, plays it, shows friends, same conversation erupts. And don't think your kid is going to be honest enough to say, "This other kid got it from his older brother."
Part of the desire for "enforcing their own style of parenting on everyone" is that parents, indirectly, will be affected by the way that other parents deal with their kid.
Don't get me wrong--I'm not excusing parents from their responsibility to have to answer the above questions from their kid. Hey, nobody said parenting was easy. But I can at least understand a parent's desire to not have to go through this.
In any event, the shuttle cannot carry enough fuel to make the orbit change required in this instance simply because the tanks aren't big enough. You can't put 500 gallons of gas in a tank that only holds 300.
...but I wonder. What would be involved in adding an extra gas tank?
I mean, the shuttles have a huge cargo bay. I'd be curious to see if they could put an extra fuel tank in there (with appropriate connections, of course). I don't know how much room it would take up and they still have to have room to service the Hubble.
Of course, doing that kind of engineering on a bird that is being retired probably isn't worth the time and effort.
Here we have a *cadet* who is on academic probation for cheating - again, let me stress, he isn't even an ensign, hasn't actually received a commission at all, but for some reason the captain of a brand new starship just magically decides he is the new first officer. Seriously? That was such utter crap, I wanted to walk out of the movie then.
Actually, I didn't necessarily have a problem with this.
One of the concepts of the original series was the "wild west" theme. The Enterprise was the only law-and-order in this part of the galaxy. Distances required a commander who could keep order and be pretty self-sufficient, because messages could take days or weeks to transfer between the Enterprise and Starfleet command.
In this kind of environment, the Captain of a ship is all powerful. Probably the better analogy, if you want to stick with Naval history, is the old sailing ships of England, where the captain was lord and master and what he said goes.
So, yes, it would be the captain's prerogative to assign whoever he wanted in whatever positions he wanted--Starfleet or not. We already know that Captain Pike was particularly impressed with Kirk and believed he would be an excellent commander. Since Captain Pike was the captain of the Enterprise, he would be able to make anybody the first officer.
(As an aside, I may be wrong about this, but for some reason I remember Kirk making Spock his first officer, which is why Spock is both first officer and chief science officer.)
Then, after miraculously taking over the entire ship, makes the utterly insane decision to single handedly attack a superior vessel, with one other person (Spock) instead of notifying the fleet that the *Earth is about to be destroyed*.
The interesting question is, what would be done about it. It looks like the bad guy had pretty much trashed the Starships that had already been sent. The only reason Enterprise wasn't among the rubble orbiting Vulcan was that Sulu left the parking brake on and made them a bit late.
So rushing back to Earth to say "Watch out! The bad guys are coming!" wouldn't necessarily have been the best move. It seems that when the bad guy got to Earth anyway, there wasn't much Starfleet could do to stop him.
Then, instead of being immediately thrown in jail along with his co-conspirators, he is rewarded with a captaincy of the Enterprise (even though he hasn't actually finished the Academy yet).
I would somewhat agree with captaincy argument. The "being thrown in jail" argument would be tough since (a) Captain Pike, the lord of and master of the ship, probably wouldn't want to see him indicted and, (b) Spock seemed to be somewhat impressed with Kirk at the end as well and since Spock was the reason that Kirk was on academic probation for cheating, he could have easily dropped the charges against Kirk, which would allow him to graduate.
The Captaincy thing has more to do with the fact that, next movie, we don't really want to see the adventures of Lt. Kirk of the USS Farragut II.
Slashdot Mirror
you can bloody E-MAIL photos to people...
E-Mail?! What are you, some old Korean person?!
Or, perhaps, make faster geese that can get out of the way.
There's a thought: We teach the geese to make jet airplanes.
Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back [...]
Well, yes, but it's slightly different.
Star Trek and Star Wars were essentially about the stories. The characters don't grow and change and learn much during the stories--they are who they are. But they're fun characters and we want to see their further adventures.
Conversely, Cars is about the characters learning something about themselves. Lightning McQueen was a self-centered jerk who learned to not be a self-centered jerk. That was the point of the movie. I don't really care about the further adventures of the no-longer jerk Lightning McQueen. I'm content to know that he's now a nice person. Is there something else Lightning McQueen--and through him, ourselves--can learn? Maybe humility...
I don't know about all the sites on the moon but I'd vote for the first landing site of anything ever (Russian?) and the spot where a human being first walked.
Okay. Fair enough. How about the first landing on the moon, accomplished by Luna 9 (February 3, 1966)? How about the first wheeled vehicle on the moon (Lunokhod 1, November 17, 1970)? Does the ban include both the landing site and the final resting place of the vehicle (about 10 KM away?)
I don't necessarily have a problem with preserving the Apollo 11 landing site. But I think it will be just as awe inspiring with a rover track running across the footprints. And it would be just as awe-inspiring to see it in 2012 through the eyes of a rover as it would be to see it in person.
If I was in the X-Prize, I might avoid the Apollo 11 landing site. But how about Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, 17? How about Surveyor 5, 6, and 7? Luna 13, 16, 20, 21 (and, if you can find it, Lunokhod 2), and 24? Heck, if I had the skill, it might be interesting to visit some of the Ranger crash sites and see if there's any man-made debris from those lying around.
I'll agree that even if we avoided the "first" sites, I still think there's plenty of man-made stuff to send back images of and win the bonus money for the X-Prize.
If Apple does not release a new version of the iPhone at this conference, or soon there after I think it will be a mistake.
Define "soon."
Actually, Apple is at the top of the heap and people will consider waiting on them. So imagine this scenario:
WWDC. Apple gives it's song-and-dance about iPhone OS 3.0. Basically, the same one they gave back in March. They reiterate that it will be shipping "This Summer." Of course, they have lots of sessions at WWDC about iPhone OS 3.0. Various rumor sites insist that it will be July, then August, then September. Finally, around September 21st, Apple gives the press the word that they'll have some big announcement in mid-October. The few who point out that this is actually outside Apple's "Summer" promise are drowned by fanbois who insist that they'd rather have it perfect than on time. In mid-October, Apple announces the immediate availability of iPhone OS 3.0 and the latest version of the iPhone with an OLED display, support for AT&T's faster network, MMS, Copy and Paste, etc. etc.
Presto! Apple just got you to hold off buying that Pre/Storm 2/Android phone for 4 months. Needless to say, Palm's 2Q results come out and show that there weren't as many people buying the Pre as they had hoped. The press, never one to miss an opportunity, declares the Pre thoroughly beaten and once again proclaims Apple as king of the hill, top of the heap, unstoppable, etc. Sure, Apple also shows a slowdown in sales for that quarter, but says that it's due to people waiting for iPhone OS 3.0 and the inevitable new phone.
So is four months "soon"? If there's no new iPhone by August, will you run out an buy a Pre/Storm 2/Android phone? Or will you wait just a little bit longer...?
you can change your chances of survival in a plane as well.
The one I remember is to sit in the back of the plane.
Depends on the design of the plane, obviously, but the luggage tends to be in the back of most jetliners which, in theory, will provide more of a cushion in the event of a crash. Also, how many times have you heard of an airplane backing into ground?
Actually, I'll add another corner with the tourist.
Here we have a guy driving with his wife and kids, trying to follow a map. He's driving slowly in order to figure out where he is or looking out the window at the scenery. He will be surprised be the upcoming exit and will try to swerve across 4 lanes in order to make it.
I used to appreciate the fact that all rental cars in Florida had a license plate that started with a Y, so you knew who was a tourist and gave them a wide berth. Of course, when the criminals figured this out, they changed it so now you have to just guess.
Six good years of eyesight later, I started to develop an abnormality in my right now. Now, in my early thirties, I've been diagnosed with keratoconus in my right eye, and I might possibly have it in my left.
"I never should have had that trendy laser surgery. It was great at first but, you know, at the ten-year mark your eyes fall out."
Damn, who knew that Ned Flanders was right!
P.S. If Palm had just gone to Apple and said "we want to make the Palm Pre sync with iTunes", would Apple have been reasonable about it? I saw a comment on Slashdot mentioning that there are non-Apple devices that sync with iTunes, implying that Apple can be reasonable.
That ability is left-over from the SoundJam days, which is why the list is so antiquated. I'm also pretty sure that whatever sync code there is for 3rd party devices was written by Apple, not the device manufacturer.
Personally, I think this is one of those, "Easier to ask forgiveness than permission" things. Assuming that Apple will sue Palm, this is just another thing that Apple can add to the list and will be worked out in whatever settlement Apple and Palm come to.
...and, I believe, Safari has a "Pretend I'm Internet Explorer" mode.
What's the charge? "Impersonating an Apple Device"? What law is that exactly...
If there were a law, these people would have been arrested.
On second thought, maybe we do need such a law... :^)
If you refuse, it's 2-5 years, depending whether or not you're a "terrorist suspect."
Of course, 2-5 years for not giving up your encryption key may be a better deal than, say, 10+ years for posession of kiddie porn or $100,000+ fines for illegally downloaded music.
We'll try to stay serene and calm, when Alabama gets the bomb.
Well, we may have larger penises, but we're also too damn tall.
Chinese Economy: Designed in America.
Fixed that for you.
But what if she ends up Soviet Russia?
Yes, you honor, this man is some kind of rodent, I don't know which.
Well that's what I heard...
I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of an NDA in this statement.
You do understand the United States has had a very significant interest in underwater vehicles approaching it's shores, right?
Indeed they do. But I'd imagine these things are pretty quiet.
FTFA:
[...] underwater gliders move around by changing their buoyancy, that is they change their density such that they alternate between more dense and less dense than the surrounding ocean water. This change in buoyancy causes the glider to rise and sink in the ocean. The glider changes its density by moving a small piston forward and back that increases and decreases its volume. You may remember that you can calculate the density of an object by taking its mass and dividing that by the object's volume. Since the mass of the glider remains constant, all we need to do is change its volume. A small change in volume (about a half cup of water) is all the glider needs to change its density enough to rise and sink in the ocean.
I would imagine these things are pretty quiet. Run them about 50 feet underwater and I doubt the government would be able to hear them.
Dr. Foster: Would you please tell your son to stop?
Ned's Dad: We can't do it, man! That's discipline! That's like tellin' Gene Krupa not to go [starts banging on the desk] "boom boom bam bam bam, boom boom bam bam bam, boom boom boom bam ba ba ba ba, da boo boo tss!" We don't believe in rules, like, we gave them up when we started livin' like freaky beatniks!
Dr. Foster: You don't believe in rules, yet you want to control Ned's anger.
Ned's Mom: Yeah. You gotta help us, Doc. We've tried nothin' and we're all out of ideas.
Simpsons, "Hurricane Neddy"
The second, more likely, explanation is that they want to enforce their own style of parenting on everyone.
Parent buys M-rated game for kid, believing that their kid can handle the "Adult themes." Kid shows other kids the game. Other kids go to their parents and say, "Can I have that game?" Other parents say, "No."
"Why not?!" whine the other kids.
"Because you're not mature enough." say the other parents.
"But this other kid has it! It's not fair!!" ...and so it goes.
There are various different scenarios. Parent buys M-Rated game for teenage son. Teenage son gets bored with it. Little brother gets it, plays it, shows friends, same conversation erupts. And don't think your kid is going to be honest enough to say, "This other kid got it from his older brother."
Part of the desire for "enforcing their own style of parenting on everyone" is that parents, indirectly, will be affected by the way that other parents deal with their kid.
Don't get me wrong--I'm not excusing parents from their responsibility to have to answer the above questions from their kid. Hey, nobody said parenting was easy. But I can at least understand a parent's desire to not have to go through this.
Maybe if they built a large wooden badger...
In any event, the shuttle cannot carry enough fuel to make the orbit change required in this instance simply because the tanks aren't big enough. You can't put 500 gallons of gas in a tank that only holds 300.
...but I wonder. What would be involved in adding an extra gas tank?
I mean, the shuttles have a huge cargo bay. I'd be curious to see if they could put an extra fuel tank in there (with appropriate connections, of course). I don't know how much room it would take up and they still have to have room to service the Hubble.
Of course, doing that kind of engineering on a bird that is being retired probably isn't worth the time and effort.
BTW you're not obliged to show a drivers license unless you're behind the wheel of a car.
It depends on your state, but at least in Nevada, you must identify yourself or you can be arrested.
Here we have a *cadet* who is on academic probation for cheating - again, let me stress, he isn't even an ensign, hasn't actually received a commission at all, but for some reason the captain of a brand new starship just magically decides he is the new first officer. Seriously? That was such utter crap, I wanted to walk out of the movie then.
Actually, I didn't necessarily have a problem with this.
One of the concepts of the original series was the "wild west" theme. The Enterprise was the only law-and-order in this part of the galaxy. Distances required a commander who could keep order and be pretty self-sufficient, because messages could take days or weeks to transfer between the Enterprise and Starfleet command.
In this kind of environment, the Captain of a ship is all powerful. Probably the better analogy, if you want to stick with Naval history, is the old sailing ships of England, where the captain was lord and master and what he said goes.
So, yes, it would be the captain's prerogative to assign whoever he wanted in whatever positions he wanted--Starfleet or not. We already know that Captain Pike was particularly impressed with Kirk and believed he would be an excellent commander. Since Captain Pike was the captain of the Enterprise, he would be able to make anybody the first officer.
(As an aside, I may be wrong about this, but for some reason I remember Kirk making Spock his first officer, which is why Spock is both first officer and chief science officer.)
Then, after miraculously taking over the entire ship, makes the utterly insane decision to single handedly attack a superior vessel, with one other person (Spock) instead of notifying the fleet that the *Earth is about to be destroyed*.
The interesting question is, what would be done about it. It looks like the bad guy had pretty much trashed the Starships that had already been sent. The only reason Enterprise wasn't among the rubble orbiting Vulcan was that Sulu left the parking brake on and made them a bit late.
So rushing back to Earth to say "Watch out! The bad guys are coming!" wouldn't necessarily have been the best move. It seems that when the bad guy got to Earth anyway, there wasn't much Starfleet could do to stop him.
Then, instead of being immediately thrown in jail along with his co-conspirators, he is rewarded with a captaincy of the Enterprise (even though he hasn't actually finished the Academy yet).
I would somewhat agree with captaincy argument. The "being thrown in jail" argument would be tough since (a) Captain Pike, the lord of and master of the ship, probably wouldn't want to see him indicted and, (b) Spock seemed to be somewhat impressed with Kirk at the end as well and since Spock was the reason that Kirk was on academic probation for cheating, he could have easily dropped the charges against Kirk, which would allow him to graduate.
The Captaincy thing has more to do with the fact that, next movie, we don't really want to see the adventures of Lt. Kirk of the USS Farragut II.