Bringing back C3PO and R2D2 in Phantom Menace was ridiculously lame. That totally screamed "insert plot contrivance here" Takes retconning to obscene proportions
They were guilty of playing with her fucking head man -- in a despicably malicious way. She was vulnerable, and they drove her over the edge. She's now DEAD. She's lost her life, for fuck's sakes. That family is destroyed and without a daughter.
This is worse than that attempted Texas teenage cheerleader murdering mom thing.
How about if your daughter were stabbed with a knife? Would you merely call that "not nice"? They killed her, man.
These CIGS sheets seem very versatile and robust, but they're also supposed to have mediocre efficiency. There may be other upcoming technologies involving quantum dots which may produce more watts per sq.ft.
Oh well, Nanosolar's technology seems cheap and easy to deploy, which is good news.
It seems to me that nobody really wants to get sick. So by seeing that people with predispositions to certain types of sickness get informed about this, then the insurance companies would save on payouts, because the informed customers will take precautions against the weaknesses/predispositions that they're warned about in advance.
The Russians aren't the Soviets. Let's also not forget that it was Western European powers who backed the Bolshevik revolution through which the communists took over Russia and enslaved them. Stalin was a Georgian, not a Russian.
Who said Russians are not European? Ethnically, they most certainly are, being mostly Slavs. Culturally they are still closer to Europeans, even though the legacy of millenia-old asiatic despotism has left a heavy mark on the people.
It's the Europeans saying that Russians aren't European, just as they also say that Turks aren't European.
Tell you what. I'm Russian, born here in Russia and living here since birth. And I consider myself a European, and so do the majority of people who I know. The acceptance of Western ideals such as individual freedom and liberalism varies, naturally, but it's nowhere near unanimous acceptance or rejection. Our present-day "patriotic" nationalists are mostly braindead "Greater Russia" style, bent on restoring the border to the original USSR one, introducing Eastern Orthodoxy as a state religion, and advocating historical revisionism bordering on Holocaust denial (ever heard of Holodomor, Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, or the Katyn massacre? these people did, and they claim all those historical events for lies and "Western plots to undermine Russia"). Our politicians, including the President, breed nationalistic fervor where it suits them, but are otherwise busy splitting the country riches between themselves. Meanwhile, Russia is steadily falling in the various politic/economic freedom and corruption indices ever since Putin came to power, at the same time that number of government bureaucrats grows.
Bah, you sound like a whiner. Your own personal wealth shouldn't come from the state, it should come from your own effort. So stop worrying about the state spending "your" wealth. Putin's put in flat tax, and various other pro-business policies. It's interesting to note that the rising number of foreign-funded NGOs correlated closely with the amount of "pro-democracy" agitation. With Putin banning them, it's put the foreign agitation lobby on the back foot.
Again, when you point to Molotov-Ribbentrop, Katyn Massacre, etc, you're only referencing a communist legacy created by Western Europe to begin with -- they're the ones who backed the Bolshevik Revolution.
So, do tell, why do you feel you have any more right to teach us than the West? At least they have the examples of their own countries, which are faring rather well last I checked, to back their words. But I don't think there's anything Asian countries have worth learning in political sphere, judging from how the ones that have most freedom and strongest economies have heavily copied the West before (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan...). And no, thank you, I do not want my country to be like the PRC or Burma.
Haha, buddy, you sound like you've been imbibing European opiates 24/7. As someone from India, the world's largest democracy, I'll tell you that not every Asian country is like Burma. I'll also tell you that the West were the biggest backers of China's dictatorship, prior to the fall of the USSR. SO please don't pretend to me that the West always supports democracy, because there have been plenty of democratic govts overthrown by Western powers.
I see you're the typical snooty European / White supremacist who thinks that other parts of the world historically lack individualism and diversity. MacCaulay famously coined the phrase "White Man's Burden" whereby he felt that Europeans had an historic responsibility to civilize the non-Europeans and save them from their own inferior mentality. This was of course the argument used to advance colonial conquest of the non-European world.
Calling for individualism should not be done as a pretext, like the call to "bring democracy to Iraq". Such calls are usually made with ulterior motives that don't have the target country's best interests at heart.
No thank you, I'm not interested in accepting your "offer that can't be refused." I don't see that the European colonials possess some kind of moral highground -- on the contrary, I see them as having an ugly historical reputation that they're not even willing to own up to.
The Cold War seems increasingly like it was a temporary interruption of a wider era -- the Colonial Era, in which Europeans dominated the planet, and pitted various ethnic groups against each other for Europe's exclusive gain.
Europe has a glaring conflict of interest in calling for changes in Russia, which will invariably increase the likelihood of European domination of Russia. I don't think that non-Europeans should have to bow to Europeans, on penalty of being called "anti-individualist", "anti-democratic", or whatever other trumped up charge is to be coined in the moment.
Europeans have just told me that Al Gore is some great founder of environmentalism (which he apparently invented right after the internet). I say Europeans are trying to influence the outcome of the US elections by giving the Nobel Prize to a Democrat and former rival to Bush Jr.
Again, I sense gamesmanship and ruthlessness from a continent with the most ambitions relative to its meager resources. There's a lot of sophistry being used, but the dubious credibility and suspicious methods are obvious.
I'm not Russian, I'm Asian, but from my point of view, a lot of the criticism against the Kremlin comes from pro-NATO Cold War biases. ie. Everything that NATO countries do is right, and everything Putin & Co do is wrong.
As somebody who doesn't want to see the world return to its pre-ColdWar state of European hegemony, I'll say that I'm glad that Russians are fostering a robust sense of nationalism, because historically they've been ruled over by outsiders and foreign-imposed govts. Even if you look at the Bolshevik Revolution that brought Russia under communist rule, it was backed by Western European powers trying to undermine the Czar. That drunken Boris Yeltsin was likewise a Manchurian Candidate who used to give away all kinds of concessions on international treaties, while using his control over the media to suppress the opposition, but he wasn't criticized because the West was benefitting from his undemocratic rule. Those aren't good precedents, and I think the Russians need to develop some natural immunity against foreign manipulation.
While some in the West cry for "more democracy in Russia," one can also note how there was a cry to "bring democracy to Iraq" -- and look what that caused. Similarly, while some will cry that Russia "must share oil" with the world, there was the similar "liberate vital oil supplies from Saddam's tyranny."
It's good to see the Russians regaining their natural strength after having it sapped by carpetbaggers from abroad. It's their country, and I like the fact that Russians can produce politicians who are willing to stand up for their nation, even if it comes to going nose-to-nose with Westerners who think the world is their oyster.
What we really need to do is to launch a satellite to survey this activity by the Sun. We can call it the Solar Min, and repair it a few times while it's out there.
Multiple Exciton Generation is where it's at. Only nanoparticle quantum dots can achieve that, and it's the means to get the highest solar efficiency, because it 's about generating multiple electrons of current for each photon absorbed by your photovoltaic material.
Except that the military is an extremely technologically-oriented branch, and spending on it helps to improve our society's technology. Look at all the incredible inventions from WW2 that now make our lives easier.
This is in contrast to spending on the welfare state, which is technologically-averse, and more specialized in political screeching, as well as staging public unrest. Now that's an example of taxpayer dollars shooting taxpayers in the foot.
But what about the transforming capabilities? How many vehicle modes does it have? Will it have just the standard 2-arms and 2-legs robot mode, or will there be a third hybrid form that looks like a crab or a squid, or something?
Could this technology be used for terraforming Mars?
Just send some nuclear-powered lasers out to Saturn's moons, and attach some of these cavity-setups to large chunks of floating ice nearby, and laser-propel the chunks over into Mars' orbit for collision. Mars could do with a little more ammonia in its atmosphere to make it more livable for us, and Saturn's rings have plenty of that stuff.
They were quite famous for their socialism, which meant that their nationalism quickly veered into nationalization (ie. confiscation of private sector assets for the 'public good')
Slashdot Mirror
But look at all the curry you got from us. That's more than Israel-Palestine gave you. Or Hong Kong. Or the Boers. Or the Canadians. Or the Irish.
Wow, you guys certainly got around, didn't you?
Bringing back C3PO and R2D2 in Phantom Menace was ridiculously lame.
That totally screamed "insert plot contrivance here"
Takes retconning to obscene proportions
We have to keep the AIDS out of the tubes that are the internet
They were guilty of playing with her fucking head man -- in a despicably malicious way. She was vulnerable, and they drove her over the edge. She's now DEAD. She's lost her life, for fuck's sakes. That family is destroyed and without a daughter.
This is worse than that attempted Texas teenage cheerleader murdering mom thing.
How about if your daughter were stabbed with a knife? Would you merely call that "not nice"? They killed her, man.
These CIGS sheets seem very versatile and robust, but they're also supposed to have mediocre efficiency. There may be other upcoming technologies involving quantum dots which may produce more watts per sq.ft.
Oh well, Nanosolar's technology seems cheap and easy to deploy, which is good news.
It seems to me that nobody really wants to get sick. So by seeing that people with predispositions to certain types of sickness get informed about this, then the insurance companies would save on payouts, because the informed customers will take precautions against the weaknesses/predispositions that they're warned about in advance.
The Russians aren't the Soviets. Let's also not forget that it was Western European powers who backed the Bolshevik revolution through which the communists took over Russia and enslaved them. Stalin was a Georgian, not a Russian.
AMD can still come back with their CPU-GPU fusion. That's where they're ahead of Intel.
Gee, that sounds like intervention that was a little more blatant than having a polonium lunch at a restaurant.
It's the Europeans saying that Russians aren't European, just as they also say that Turks aren't European.
Tell you what. I'm Russian, born here in Russia and living here since birth. And I consider myself a European, and so do the majority of people who I know. The acceptance of Western ideals such as individual freedom and liberalism varies, naturally, but it's nowhere near unanimous acceptance or rejection. Our present-day "patriotic" nationalists are mostly braindead "Greater Russia" style, bent on restoring the border to the original USSR one, introducing Eastern Orthodoxy as a state religion, and advocating historical revisionism bordering on Holocaust denial (ever heard of Holodomor, Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, or the Katyn massacre? these people did, and they claim all those historical events for lies and "Western plots to undermine Russia"). Our politicians, including the President, breed nationalistic fervor where it suits them, but are otherwise busy splitting the country riches between themselves. Meanwhile, Russia is steadily falling in the various politic/economic freedom and corruption indices ever since Putin came to power, at the same time that number of government bureaucrats grows.Bah, you sound like a whiner. Your own personal wealth shouldn't come from the state, it should come from your own effort. So stop worrying about the state spending "your" wealth. Putin's put in flat tax, and various other pro-business policies. It's interesting to note that the rising number of foreign-funded NGOs correlated closely with the amount of "pro-democracy" agitation. With Putin banning them, it's put the foreign agitation lobby on the back foot.
Again, when you point to Molotov-Ribbentrop, Katyn Massacre, etc, you're only referencing a communist legacy created by Western Europe to begin with -- they're the ones who backed the Bolshevik Revolution.
So, do tell, why do you feel you have any more right to teach us than the West? At least they have the examples of their own countries, which are faring rather well last I checked, to back their words. But I don't think there's anything Asian countries have worth learning in political sphere, judging from how the ones that have most freedom and strongest economies have heavily copied the West before (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan...). And no, thank you, I do not want my country to be like the PRC or Burma.Haha, buddy, you sound like you've been imbibing European opiates 24/7. As someone from India, the world's largest democracy, I'll tell you that not every Asian country is like Burma. I'll also tell you that the West were the biggest backers of China's dictatorship, prior to the fall of the USSR. SO please don't pretend to me that the West always supports democracy, because there have been plenty of democratic govts overthrown by Western powers.
I see you're the typical snooty European / White supremacist who thinks that other parts of the world historically lack individualism and diversity. MacCaulay famously coined the phrase "White Man's Burden" whereby he felt that Europeans had an historic responsibility to civilize the non-Europeans and save them from their own inferior mentality. This was of course the argument used to advance colonial conquest of the non-European world.
Calling for individualism should not be done as a pretext, like the call to "bring democracy to Iraq". Such calls are usually made with ulterior motives that don't have the target country's best interests at heart.
No thank you, I'm not interested in accepting your "offer that can't be refused." I don't see that the European colonials possess some kind of moral highground -- on the contrary, I see them as having an ugly historical reputation that they're not even willing to own up to.
The Cold War seems increasingly like it was a temporary interruption of a wider era -- the Colonial Era, in which Europeans dominated the planet, and pitted various ethnic groups against each other for Europe's exclusive gain.
Europe has a glaring conflict of interest in calling for changes in Russia, which will invariably increase the likelihood of European domination of Russia. I don't think that non-Europeans should have to bow to Europeans, on penalty of being called "anti-individualist", "anti-democratic", or whatever other trumped up charge is to be coined in the moment.
Europeans have just told me that Al Gore is some great founder of environmentalism (which he apparently invented right after the internet).
I say Europeans are trying to influence the outcome of the US elections by giving the Nobel Prize to a Democrat and former rival to Bush Jr.
Again, I sense gamesmanship and ruthlessness from a continent with the most ambitions relative to its meager resources. There's a lot of sophistry being used, but the dubious credibility and suspicious methods are obvious.
I'm not Russian, I'm Asian, but from my point of view, a lot of the criticism against the Kremlin comes from pro-NATO Cold War biases. ie. Everything that NATO countries do is right, and everything Putin & Co do is wrong.
As somebody who doesn't want to see the world return to its pre-ColdWar state of European hegemony, I'll say that I'm glad that Russians are fostering a robust sense of nationalism, because historically they've been ruled over by outsiders and foreign-imposed govts. Even if you look at the Bolshevik Revolution that brought Russia under communist rule, it was backed by Western European powers trying to undermine the Czar. That drunken Boris Yeltsin was likewise a Manchurian Candidate who used to give away all kinds of concessions on international treaties, while using his control over the media to suppress the opposition, but he wasn't criticized because the West was benefitting from his undemocratic rule. Those aren't good precedents, and I think the Russians need to develop some natural immunity against foreign manipulation.
While some in the West cry for "more democracy in Russia," one can also note how there was a cry to "bring democracy to Iraq" -- and look what that caused. Similarly, while some will cry that Russia "must share oil" with the world, there was the similar "liberate vital oil supplies from Saddam's tyranny."
It's good to see the Russians regaining their natural strength after having it sapped by carpetbaggers from abroad. It's their country, and I like the fact that Russians can produce politicians who are willing to stand up for their nation, even if it comes to going nose-to-nose with Westerners who think the world is their oyster.
What we really need to do is to launch a satellite to survey this activity by the Sun.
We can call it the Solar Min, and repair it a few times while it's out there.
So nobody's been payint attention to Innovalight in the news lately?
They have the cheaper and more efficient technology:
http://www.news.com/Pour-yourself-a-silicon-solar-panel/2100-11392_3-6213132.html?tag=nefd.top
www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/solar_america/pdfs/41741.pdf
Multiple Exciton Generation is where it's at. Only nanoparticle quantum dots can achieve that, and it's the means to get the highest solar efficiency, because it 's about generating multiple electrons of current for each photon absorbed by your photovoltaic material.
But what does Pauly Shore think of it?
So where's the torrent? ;P
(uhh, J/K, to any NSA computer out there!)
Junior highschool, man -- junior. Don't want to recruit from the old crowd, who've lost touch with afterschool cartoon militarism.
Except that the military is an extremely technologically-oriented branch, and spending on it helps to improve our society's technology. Look at all the incredible inventions from WW2 that now make our lives easier.
This is in contrast to spending on the welfare state, which is technologically-averse, and more specialized in political screeching, as well as staging public unrest. Now that's an example of taxpayer dollars shooting taxpayers in the foot.
But what about the transforming capabilities? How many vehicle modes does it have? Will it have just the standard 2-arms and 2-legs robot mode, or will there be a third hybrid form that looks like a crab or a squid, or something?
(in m'best scottish accent)
Miiittthhrrriilllll!!!
They'll rename it by juggling some letters. It'll be called the Door Too Coolo
Wow, now elections can be rigged faster than ever!
No paper means no audit trail!
Next they need a patent on firing people, or patents on certain soft phrases used for firing. How about patenting "downsizing", "rightsizing", etc?
Could this technology be used for terraforming Mars?
Just send some nuclear-powered lasers out to Saturn's moons, and attach some of these cavity-setups to large chunks of floating ice nearby, and laser-propel the chunks over into Mars' orbit for collision. Mars could do with a little more ammonia in its atmosphere to make it more livable for us, and Saturn's rings have plenty of that stuff.
They were quite famous for their socialism, which meant that their nationalism quickly veered into nationalization (ie. confiscation of private sector assets for the 'public good')