You spoiled bastard, people had no problem steering cars before power steering became widespread. In fact they still do, every day. It's more a comfort feature than anything else.
Hang on, I thought "constitution-free zones" were just a sarcastic term to illustrate the tragicomedy of your airports. You're making it sound like it's actually a real thing! Is it? Do they seriously call it that? That is surprisingly honest.
Once you add a bright LED lamp to illuminate your e-ink board, will it save much energy vs. an LCD tv?
Perhaps not in terms of operating costs, but definitely in terms of production costs - large LCD screens take quite a sophisticated process to create, and as the pixel count goes up, the number of screens you need to manufacture to come up with one that passes QC increases exponentially. Remember that every single pixel has its own transistor (or three) controlling it, and the error rate for making them is not 0%.
Seeing as these were both once world-leading influential countries that have seen their reach decline over the centuries, I wonder if its kinda like a country inferiority complex.
I think you're on to something here; I can't speak for France, but I know how deep this goes inside Hungarian people's minds.
It's no surprise really; their history is basically a thousand years of mostly unbroken greatness, resulting in a great sense of pride in their culture and origins (Americans would call this patriotism, but politicians ruined that word), then all of a sudden they basically go from being a world power to a tiny speck and are under violent foreign occupation for close to a century - and then BAM!, the country is thrown back into the "real world" (in 1989) as if nothing ever happened. Now everyone who's been alive for the past 4-5 generations knows how much it sucks to be Hungarian, yet at the same time you can't look at a history book (or even out the window) without thinking the exact opposite, and people end up in this weird sort of frustrated, pessimistic sense of entitlement. And that, to be honest, pretty well describes the attitude most Americans seem to be displaying about their country right now!
You might be on a different point along the bell curve, but you seem to be riding along the same one: Americans will never let go of how great their country is/used to be, but they are already having to face the quickly changing circumstances... And when 300 million people undergo this level of cognitive dissonance, sooner or later *something* extreme is going to happen. Remember, Hungarians went through this before the advent of nuclear weapons...
The story you tell is all too familiar. The same thing is going on in Hungary right now. We basically have our own "Incompetent Little Hitler" running the show.
Sorry, but one screwup by NASA doesn't obliterate their astounding exploration record. Nobody, but nobody can even compare. There is no better agency in the world that could pull off this mission.
While I completely agree with you, it wasn't even NASA that screwed up that time, it was Lockheed Martin.
Hell, just this morning on the news they showed a car crashing through a store, barely missing a toddler -- the idiot driver thought the car was in reverse. Had he been driving a computer-controlled car, that would have never happened.
How the hell does that happen? Do people seriously reverse out of a parking spot at full throttle? How do you not notice which way the car is moving the instant you begin letting up the clutch?
If I "pass" an IQ test (ie. get a positive result) do I get to have a license in the US.?:-)
For me it would undoubtedly be Helmut Halfmann, who wrote the story for the AquaNox game series, which are (sadly) the cornerstone of vastly underrated brilliance.
It started way back in 1996 with Archimedean Dynasty, a DOS game that had (for the time) advanced 3D graphics, a long and exciting nonlinear storyline, dialogue where you get to choose what your character says and it actually makes a difference, splendind environments and extendable vehicles, and above all, a great story.
This world is a post-apocalyptic dystopian future, where humanity has destroyed the Earth's surface to the point of uninhabitability by the mid-22nd century, and, lacking sufficient space tech, the only way to survive was to migrate into the oceans where the water provides a strong enough shield from the radiation. The games play in the 2660s, when humanity has completely forgotten what life on the surface was like.
A deeply troubled society living in a completely hostile environment, breathing artificial breathing gases that mess with their heads, living in amazing yet depressing underwater cities where no sunlight ever goes. Imagine that with some of the most brilliantly and disturbingly atmospheric soundtracks ever put into a computer game, and what you have are the sequels AquaNox (2001) and AquaNox 2: Revelation (~2003).
The story was so intricately worked out that to this day I can still see it happening; there was a timeline starting from the 21st century that detailed the events that led to the world you see in the games, and I remember getting the chills and thinking "HOLY SHIT!" when I realized that some of these fictional events have since then actually happened and some are looking more and more plausible by the day.
Call me a fanatic (which I am), but the day I got a copy of AquaNox bundled with an old Geforce video card was the day when gaming started for me (even though I didn't even understand a word of it because it was in English) and the day Massive Development went under was the day it ended. Every single game I've played since then only managed to get ONE of these things right, at best. When was the last time you played a game that kept you imagining being in that world for days after you've played it, that kept you replaying over and over because of the sheer atmosphere, or one where you extracted the game's sound files (ahem) just so you could listen to the ambient music for hours on end? When was the last time you played a game like that, and at the end you thought, "holy shit, this could actually happen?"
Your English is so good that Mr Rude Coward made an assumption about you and in so doing made an ass of himself. On the other hand, I looked up some of your posts, and your self-taught English fluency is damned impressive.
Thank you very much!:-) To be fair though, I was cheating. My native tongue is Hungarian, so it was not too hard (I never actually wanted to learn English).
I made an ass of myself in a similar fashion (assuming someone to be American because he was using brand names instead of adjectives) a few posts back, so I well and truly deserved it!
Depending on what you call mathematics, I'd argue that formal logic is closer to the essence of rationality.
You are correct, but what tool do you use to teach people logical thinking (and only logical thinking - you could argue that programming computers is the 'purest' form of applied logic, but most people don't have the mindset or sufficient interest for that), if not - mathematics?
Consider how mathematics came to be: as far back as thousands of years ago, the drive of the most intelligent thinkers of society to understand the world, and to create a system of documenting (and thus passing on to later generations) identified and verified connections within it, is what led to the invention of what we now call "mathematics". It rose directly from the desire to put rational thoughts and ideas into a systematic, and thus advancable, way of thinking.
This in turn has lead to the exponentially increasing complexity that we see today - slowly, layer by layer, raising the level of effort and intelligence required to acquire a "reasonable" level of understanding. Compounded by a way of education that does not adequately address the diversity of capability within human populations, the prevalence of the idea that mathematics is unneccessary and too far removed from reality was bound to inevitably become widespread enough to matter.
You are right, I made a mistake, my bad. I never took an English course. I never needed to, an online dictionary and some persistence taught me enough English to communicate on the level required. I've never been to an English-speaking country so far.
It's the unintuitive ways in which it's taught (which in turn causes the societal alienation of the subject) that is the problem, not the fact that it's a requirement.
Mathematics is nothing less than the upmost tool of rationality. Lose it, and all progress decays.
Legal means for getting media when needed? Like iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, AmazonMp3, Amazon, paid Pandora, and any other of a plethora of easy to use and economical means of legally "getting media"?
None of the services you mentioned actually work. Unless you're in that one country. Which most people on planet Earth aren't.
At first I found it hilarious that there is apparently a town called Orban in the UK. Then after clicking the link, I found it hilarious that you accidentally added that 'r' in just the right place:) (I'm referring of course to the current "village idiot meets Stalin" of Central Europe, Viktor Orbán).
This is offtopic, but... what the hell? That's not an offensive or controversial title in any way I can tell. Why would any sane publisher refuse that? Of course I wouldn't push it in the world's most religiously-charged places, but there are not too many of those.
Slashdot Mirror
Speaking as a non-American, NASA is one of the few things I find myself admiring about the USA, and certainly one of the most worthy.
Your government clearly underestimates the high esteem in which NASA is held around the world, otherwise it would fund the bejesus out of it.
Speaking as a non-American, NASA is one of the few things I find myself admiring about the USA, and certainly one of the most worthy.
Your government clearly underestimates the high esteem in which NASA is held around the world, otherwise it would fund the bejesus out of it.
Speaking as an European, ...EXACTLY!!!
NASA is probably the greatest (still-)standing achievement of the United States when comprehended as a whole.
It is a representation of back when the USA was at its finest.
(Score: -1, WTF)
You spoiled bastard, people had no problem steering cars before power steering became widespread. In fact they still do, every day. It's more a comfort feature than anything else.
Hang on, I thought "constitution-free zones" were just a sarcastic term to illustrate the tragicomedy of your airports. You're making it sound like it's actually a real thing! Is it? Do they seriously call it that? That is surprisingly honest.
Once you add a bright LED lamp to illuminate your e-ink board, will it save much energy vs. an LCD tv?
Perhaps not in terms of operating costs, but definitely in terms of production costs - large LCD screens take quite a sophisticated process to create, and as the pixel count goes up, the number of screens you need to manufacture to come up with one that passes QC increases exponentially. Remember that every single pixel has its own transistor (or three) controlling it, and the error rate for making them is not 0%.
Seeing as these were both once world-leading influential countries that have seen their reach decline over the centuries, I wonder if its kinda like a country inferiority complex.
I think you're on to something here; I can't speak for France, but I know how deep this goes inside Hungarian people's minds.
It's no surprise really; their history is basically a thousand years of mostly unbroken greatness, resulting in a great sense of pride in their culture and origins (Americans would call this patriotism, but politicians ruined that word), then all of a sudden they basically go from being a world power to a tiny speck and are under violent foreign occupation for close to a century - and then BAM!, the country is thrown back into the "real world" (in 1989) as if nothing ever happened. Now everyone who's been alive for the past 4-5 generations knows how much it sucks to be Hungarian, yet at the same time you can't look at a history book (or even out the window) without thinking the exact opposite, and people end up in this weird sort of frustrated, pessimistic sense of entitlement. And that, to be honest, pretty well describes the attitude most Americans seem to be displaying about their country right now!
You might be on a different point along the bell curve, but you seem to be riding along the same one: Americans will never let go of how great their country is/used to be, but they are already having to face the quickly changing circumstances... And when 300 million people undergo this level of cognitive dissonance, sooner or later *something* extreme is going to happen. Remember, Hungarians went through this before the advent of nuclear weapons...
The story you tell is all too familiar. The same thing is going on in Hungary right now. We basically have our own "Incompetent Little Hitler" running the show.
Unless forced to, most people in the USA deal with it by using a car.
Fixed that for you.
Sorry, but one screwup by NASA doesn't obliterate their astounding exploration record. Nobody, but nobody can even compare. There is no better agency in the world that could pull off this mission.
While I completely agree with you, it wasn't even NASA that screwed up that time, it was Lockheed Martin.
Seriously? So you guys are still getting the censored page? Why am I getting it too when I use .com then? :(
There is something wrong with your math. The circumference of the Earth is 40,075 km. Where did you get that 24K figure from??
That's brilliant, where is that from? :)
Hell, just this morning on the news they showed a car crashing through a store, barely missing a toddler -- the idiot driver thought the car was in reverse. Had he been driving a computer-controlled car, that would have never happened.
How the hell does that happen? Do people seriously reverse out of a parking spot at full throttle?
How do you not notice which way the car is moving the instant you begin letting up the clutch?
If I "pass" an IQ test (ie. get a positive result) do I get to have a license in the US.? :-)
Systematic abuse against the privacy of many, yet all it takes is a little money to make us all forget as if it never happened.
Once again, the lawyers win, and nobody else. What exactly did they contribute here?
As to an example of another planet that got reamed by something large, it would be Uranus.
I'm not even going to go there...
For me it would undoubtedly be Helmut Halfmann, who wrote the story for the AquaNox game series, which are (sadly) the cornerstone of vastly underrated brilliance.
It started way back in 1996 with Archimedean Dynasty, a DOS game that had (for the time) advanced 3D graphics, a long and exciting nonlinear storyline, dialogue where you get to choose what your character says and it actually makes a difference, splendind environments and extendable vehicles, and above all, a great story.
This world is a post-apocalyptic dystopian future, where humanity has destroyed the Earth's surface to the point of uninhabitability by the mid-22nd century, and, lacking sufficient space tech, the only way to survive was to migrate into the oceans where the water provides a strong enough shield from the radiation. The games play in the 2660s, when humanity has completely forgotten what life on the surface was like.
A deeply troubled society living in a completely hostile environment, breathing artificial breathing gases that mess with their heads, living in amazing yet depressing underwater cities where no sunlight ever goes. Imagine that with some of the most brilliantly and disturbingly atmospheric soundtracks ever put into a computer game, and what you have are the sequels AquaNox (2001) and AquaNox 2: Revelation (~2003).
The story was so intricately worked out that to this day I can still see it happening; there was a timeline starting from the 21st century that detailed the events that led to the world you see in the games, and I remember getting the chills and thinking "HOLY SHIT!" when I realized that some of these fictional events have since then actually happened and some are looking more and more plausible by the day.
Call me a fanatic (which I am), but the day I got a copy of AquaNox bundled with an old Geforce video card was the day when gaming started for me (even though I didn't even understand a word of it because it was in English) and the day Massive Development went under was the day it ended. Every single game I've played since then only managed to get ONE of these things right, at best. When was the last time you played a game that kept you imagining being in that world for days after you've played it, that kept you replaying over and over because of the sheer atmosphere, or one where you extracted the game's sound files (ahem) just so you could listen to the ambient music for hours on end? When was the last time you played a game like that, and at the end you thought, "holy shit, this could actually happen?"
Your English is so good that Mr Rude Coward made an assumption about you and in so doing made an ass of himself. On the other hand, I looked up some of your posts, and your self-taught English fluency is damned impressive.
Thank you very much! :-) To be fair though, I was cheating. My native tongue is Hungarian, so it was not too hard (I never actually wanted to learn English).
I made an ass of myself in a similar fashion (assuming someone to be American because he was using brand names instead of adjectives) a few posts back, so I well and truly deserved it!
10: label not found
Point taken. :-)
Depending on what you call mathematics, I'd argue that formal logic is closer to the essence of rationality.
You are correct, but what tool do you use to teach people logical thinking (and only logical thinking - you could argue that programming computers is the 'purest' form of applied logic, but most people don't have the mindset or sufficient interest for that), if not - mathematics?
Consider how mathematics came to be: as far back as thousands of years ago, the drive of the most intelligent thinkers of society to understand the world, and to create a system of documenting (and thus passing on to later generations) identified and verified connections within it, is what led to the invention of what we now call "mathematics". It rose directly from the desire to put rational thoughts and ideas into a systematic, and thus advancable, way of thinking.
This in turn has lead to the exponentially increasing complexity that we see today - slowly, layer by layer, raising the level of effort and intelligence required to acquire a "reasonable" level of understanding. Compounded by a way of education that does not adequately address the diversity of capability within human populations, the prevalence of the idea that mathematics is unneccessary and too far removed from reality was bound to inevitably become widespread enough to matter.
And hence: this article.
You are right, I made a mistake, my bad. I never took an English course. I never needed to, an online dictionary and some persistence taught me enough English to communicate on the level required. I've never been to an English-speaking country so far.
How many languages do you speak fluently?
NO.
It's the unintuitive ways in which it's taught (which in turn causes the societal alienation of the subject) that is the problem, not the fact that it's a requirement.
Mathematics is nothing less than the upmost tool of rationality. Lose it, and all progress decays.
Hypersonic unnamed rockets? Wait until Anonymous hears about that...
Gotta hand it to her, that's pretty cool.
Legal means for getting media when needed? Like iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, AmazonMp3, Amazon, paid Pandora, and any other of a plethora of easy to use and economical means of legally "getting media"?
None of the services you mentioned actually work. Unless you're in that one country. Which most people on planet Earth aren't.
At first I found it hilarious that there is apparently a town called Orban in the UK. Then after clicking the link, I found it hilarious that you accidentally added that 'r' in just the right place :) (I'm referring of course to the current "village idiot meets Stalin" of Central Europe, Viktor Orbán).
This is offtopic, but... what the hell? That's not an offensive or controversial title in any way I can tell. Why would any sane publisher refuse that? Of course I wouldn't push it in the world's most religiously-charged places, but there are not too many of those.