Good god, the most original post on this topic, actually containing some investigation, is only modded +3. Meanwhile, there are dozens of +5 posts telling us that we have to have an open mind.
Excuse me now, I've found a jogging route that leaves me with more energy at the end than when I started.
I say we use it to build a dyson sphere around the entire universe. Then we can finally solve the question of whether the universe is expanding / contracting / balancing. The hard way.
Just in case it's expanding, we'd better have Scotty jam open the hatch.
"How can I tell," said the man, "that the past isn't a fiction designed to account for the discrepancy between my immediate physical sensations and my state of mind?" [/douglasadams]
There was a UK reality show based around a bunch of people thinking they were off in to space. I wonder if this is the US version? You have been warned!
As you'd expect with a reality show, they all went a bit loopy pretty quickly. I do wonder what it is with the modern world that makes people flip out so badly under unusual conditions. If we had something like WW2 now I suspect everyone would just run around waving their arms mumbling 'wibble'. It just makes you appreciate what a level headed bunch our parents/grandparents were.
I think it's just because of the criterion they chose the contestants on. Frankly, I reckon five years of everyone running around waving their arms and mumbling 'wibble' might have been preferable to five years of everyone blowing the crap out of each other, but that's just me.;)
After all, when people buy tissues these days, how many are really loyal to the particular brand Kleenex anymore? How many people care if the personal casette player they buy is actually a Sony Walkman? Or that the copier they buy is actually a Xerox? Or the aspirin they buy is really Bayer Aspirin? And so on.
I don't know about you, but I don't tend to use those names. I have tissues, a photocopier, headache tablets (or sometimes I call them paracetamol)... Fair enough, I have a walkman, but it actually is an elderly Sony Walkman. I think this stuff about the public overusing a brand name is overblown, and the examples of it are very rare.
On the other hand, the threat of losing your trademark is real, and I can't condemn a company for defending theirs.
All two body systems orbit a common point. If you cleared all the other gunk out of the solar system, the earth and the sun would orbit a common point. It would just happen to be very, very deep in the sun because of the disparity of mass. I don't see your argument there, unless you're saying that the common point is outside Pluto and that this isn't true of other systems.
So EFF stands for the free exchange of information except when it's information they don't like?
No, troll. From their main page : "What is EFF? EFF is a nonprofit group of passionate people -- lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries -- working to protect your digital rights.
That can't be for real. Lawyers? Working to help us? This changes everything. How can I make shark, parasite and ambulance chasing jokes in the future? Man, how could I have made just a gross simplification?
Much as I hate to quote Wikipedia when we're discussing a scientific topic, here's a quote from the Vesta entry and the discovery section of Ceres entry. It makes for quite interesting reading.
After the discovery of Vesta in 1807, no further asteroids were discovered for 38 years. During this time the four known asteroids were counted among the planets, and each had its own planetary symbol.
Ceres was discovered by accident. Piazzi was searching for a star listed by Francis Wollaston as Mayer 87 because it was not in Mayer's zodiacal catalogue in the position given (it eventually transpired that Wollaston had made a mistake -- the star was in fact Lacaille 87). Instead, Piazzi found a moving star-like object, which he thought at first was a comet.
Piazzi observed Ceres a total of 24 times, the final time on February 11, when illness interrupted. On 24 January 1801, Piazzi announced his discovery in letters to fellow astronomers, among them his fellow countryman, Barnaba Oriani of Milan. He reported it as a comet but "since its movement is so slow and rather uniform, it has occurred to me several times that it might be something better than a comet" [4]. By early February Ceres was lost as it receded behind the Sun. In April, Piazzi sent his complete observations to Oriani, Bode, and Lalande in Paris. They were shortly thereafter published in the September, 1801 issue of the Monatliche Correspondenz.
To recover the asteroid, Carl Friedrich Gauss, then only 24 years old, developed a method of orbit determination from three observations. In only a few weeks, he predicted the path of Ceres, and sent his results to Franz Xaver, Baron von Zach, the editor of the Monatliche Correspondenz. On December 31, 1801, von Zach and Heinrich W. M. Olbers unambiguously confirmed the recovery of Ceres.
Johann Elert Bode believed Ceres to be the "missing planet" that Johann Daniel Titius had calculated to exist between Mars and Jupiter, at a distance of 419 million km (2.8 AU) from the Sun. Ceres was assigned a planetary symbol, and remained listed as a planet in astronomy books and tables (along with 2 Pallas, 3 Juno and 4 Vesta) for about half a century until further asteroids were discovered[5]. However, Ceres turned out to be disappointingly small, showing no discernible disc, and so Sir William Herschel coined the term "asteroid" ("star-like") to describe it.
Have you ever actually read anything besides your own posts? You strike me as one of those people who gets all hot and bothered at others for no other purpose than hearing the sound of your own voice (or reading your own posts, in this case).
Apparently you're incapable of recognizing a literary device when you see one. Oh sorry, that would make it pretty hard for you to make love to your own opinions.
I'm not about to apologise for being irked when something I enjoy and put a lot of time and effort into is pathetically misrespresented by someone who will defend ignorance as a "literary device". I will however apologise for being unnecessarily aggressive. Chess players are often offended by ignorant misrepresentations of chess, such as clumsy uses of the word 'checkmate' or visual media displaying a chessboard with an illegal position or the board rotated 90 degrees.
Seriously, I will not reply to you again because I am sick and tired of people like you refusing to actually have a normal discussion about topics that really do not warrant the kind of response you gave me. I initially signed up for a username because I thought it would be nice to participate in the discussions a little - and I still do.
Posts like yours, however, are not intended for 'discussion' - they are intended for flame wars.
The first half of my post was certainly not intended for 'discussion'. You however, decided to discuss it anyway, by defending the expression as a 'literary device'. You then attacked me, my posting habits, my intelligence and you ran away. Its your post that is flamebait.
The second half of the post argued against your point, but you conveniently ignored it. Admittedly, the tone was quite harsh, but if you can't handle that, you certainly made an error registering here.
Slashdot Mirror
It's been done.
No, it's the next line of dialogue after Akbar's "It's a trap!" in Return of the Jedi.
Fighters coming in.
Probably marklar.
For the investment philistines among us (like me!), why is it illegal?
Anyone else thinking of accellerando?
As a non-drinking Irish electronic engineer, thanks.
Good god, the most original post on this topic, actually containing some investigation, is only modded +3. Meanwhile, there are dozens of +5 posts telling us that we have to have an open mind.
Excuse me now, I've found a jogging route that leaves me with more energy at the end than when I started.
"How can I tell," said the man, "that the past isn't a fiction designed to account for the discrepancy between my immediate physical sensations and my state of mind?" [/douglasadams]
Interestingly, it's not found in gorillas, though chimps and Orang Utans both have it.
I use vacuum, though my mother uses "hoover". And I'm Irish, not British, my Canadian friend. :p
Paracetamol is an international, non proprietary name, while acetaminophen is unique to the US, AFAIK. Both are abbreviations of the chemical name.
I don't know about you, but I don't tend to use those names. I have tissues, a photocopier, headache tablets (or sometimes I call them paracetamol)... Fair enough, I have a walkman, but it actually is an elderly Sony Walkman. I think this stuff about the public overusing a brand name is overblown, and the examples of it are very rare.
On the other hand, the threat of losing your trademark is real, and I can't condemn a company for defending theirs.
Maybe Mister Rogers would be a better candidate to keep things under control.
Read his post again. He didn't say what you think he said.
Already been done, man.
All two body systems orbit a common point. If you cleared all the other gunk out of the solar system, the earth and the sun would orbit a common point. It would just happen to be very, very deep in the sun because of the disparity of mass. I don't see your argument there, unless you're saying that the common point is outside Pluto and that this isn't true of other systems.
There already is a distinction: one googles for pron on Google.
You should quit while you're ahead.
Much as I hate to quote Wikipedia when we're discussing a scientific topic, here's a quote from the Vesta entry and the discovery section of Ceres entry. It makes for quite interesting reading.
That reference five is When Did the Asteroids Become Minor Planets, and is worth a read too.
I'm not about to apologise for being irked when something I enjoy and put a lot of time and effort into is pathetically misrespresented by someone who will defend ignorance as a "literary device". I will however apologise for being unnecessarily aggressive. Chess players are often offended by ignorant misrepresentations of chess, such as clumsy uses of the word 'checkmate' or visual media displaying a chessboard with an illegal position or the board rotated 90 degrees.
The first half of my post was certainly not intended for 'discussion'. You however, decided to discuss it anyway, by defending the expression as a 'literary device'. You then attacked me, my posting habits, my intelligence and you ran away. Its your post that is flamebait.
The second half of the post argued against your point, but you conveniently ignored it. Admittedly, the tone was quite harsh, but if you can't handle that, you certainly made an error registering here.