I expect them to cost more initially. Then, over time, as the benefits reach fruition we'll see that it less expensive to put healthy people into upwardly mobile employment than it is to warehouse them in jails. (I do have a few things in common with socialists but I used logic, instead of feelings, to reach those conclusions.)
For example, I support paying taxes for a strong social safety net. It's cheaper than hiring my own security guards or paying for damage after the hoards have broken in and stolen my shit. I like my shit. That's why I bought it. It's much cheaper to give you the means to get your own shit than it is to try to keep hoards of people from taking mine.
Err... I'm a Libertarian, actually. Not a Randian. I'll be dead and gone before Bernie's plans reach full fruition. I'm okay with that. I don't actually need anything more in life. I'm good to go and there's no much that can harm me any more, even some extra tax dollars. I'd almost certainly not alter even a little bit of my behavior if my taxes were raised. I'd rather your kids (mine are set) actually have something to be proud of, as a country, again.
Unfortunately, from what I have read (that whole terms and conditions thing) you're not buying e-books. In most cases, you're licensing them and that license doesn't necessarily include the ability to transfer that license. This appears to be relatively common with non-tangible product licenses.
I dunno... I've seen some documentaries and we've had a few forks and we've had a few major versions since we climbed down from the trees. Or, if you want, since before we climbed into 'em.
You tap the brake, cut the wheel into as if to head oncoming traffic, pull the emergency brake (which will lock the rear tires) and immediately cut the wheel back to center line, brake with the pedal, release the e-brake, and put your car backwards into the ditch. You avoid harming yourself (much) by putting the rear of the vehicle into the obstacle(s), you avoid the truck, and you avoid the child. If you have enough time to think about it, you can slow yourself down more rapidly by using the accelerator pedal once you've reached the point where the vehicle has begun to turn sideways. You can do even more with a standard transmission by employing engine braking in a variety of situations.
However, if there's a pile of nuns hiding in the ditch then you just drive straight for it - after hitting the gas so that you can speed up and miss both the kids and the nuns hidden in the ditch. But the flaming hulk of a fuel delivery truck is still going to kill them all - and you, when they failed to brake properly and were following too close while not noticing they were on fire.
The first is actually an evasion maneuver. If you want then you can take a variety of advanced driving courses that cover everything from off-road, to track, to rally, to defensive, and even to rock climbing lessons. They're moderately expensive but they're worth it as many of them will actually put you into a five point restraint and allow you the freedom to wreck a car should you fail to grasp the lessons completely. Yes, yes I have found those schools that have dented cars tend to be among the best - even in areas where you're learning to drive on a track. However, this probably doesn't extend to open-wheel automobiles. I've not seen any dented ones in any of those courses.
Slowing down and swerving are not always the two choices that you're limited to. There are many different options that include ways to minimize risk. The greatest step you can take is to not drive faster than the conditions allow. (This is not always the posted speed limit and is quite subjective.)
There should be no luck and no panic. Those should not happen - ever. (Not that they don't, but that they should not.) I say this as someone who has spent a great deal of time working specifically with traffic (including safety aspects), driven professionally, taken many driving courses, and owns what can best be called 'a stable of automobiles.'
If you have lost control of your vehicle and have an accident then there's a near 100% certainty that you were driving too fast for the conditions. (I realize that sentence confuses some people, read it carefully.) If you panic in an emergency situation, you should not be driving. If you are unable to maintain control of your vehicle then you should not be driving. If you are unable or unwilling to adapt your driving to the conditions then you should not be driving.
In short, there are many people on the road who should not be on the road. Will autonomous vehicles help with this? Probably. i hope so. However, I have strong reservations with a variety of issues including the time estimates given by many optimistic people who think the tech will be here soon and the privacy implications associated with the idea of ubiquitous fully autonomous vehicles.
Eh? Well, he may have enabled adults to think for themselves and allow consenting people to purchase products that let them feel happy for a time. It might have encouraged individual thought or action. I'd say that's pretty dangerous! We can't have people taking control of their own bodies and minds. Think of the children!
That sounds like it might lead to a very *interesting* evening. Well, if Dawkins weren't present. No, actually, it should be a televised event and Dawkins can be one of the announcers or commentators.
He and I are both capitalists. I've purchased all of his weekly allotment of commas. I fully expect to use the shotgun approach and have extraneous commas in my posts.
I am pretty sure a NSL does not have the power to give instructions of that nature. There are other mechanisms, surely, but the NSL isn't some all-powerful tool - based on quite a bit of reading and seeing a number of examples that have been leaked to the public.
An NSL doesn't tell you to censor content. An NSL tells you to monitor and record content and share that content with the relative authorities. It may also include instructions that prevent you from making this process known to the public. An NSL might apply to past and future actions but does not, by itself, have the power to force them to censor or do any one of a number of other things that people ascribe to the NSLs.
There's a chance that I'm mistaken but, in as much as I've read, the NSL simply doesn't carry those types of powers. It does not, for example, force companies to put back doors in software or hardware. That is via another legal mechanism whose name I've forgotten. It may, on the other hand, tell the company to make use of those back doors and to forward or retain the information gathered from them.
It is quite possible for public discourse to be done in a civil manner. In fact, the vast majority of my posts are civil. On the other hand, it's quite possible to be trolling while maintaining an air of civility and politeness. I may well be guilty of the latter but, if done, it generally actually had a purpose and the responses indicate that at least a few people understood the reasoning and methodology.
Tools, including mannerisms and speech, can be used for good or ill. It's easier to kill with a scalpel than it is to heal, after all.
I'd also question the use of the word "freedom." Chances are good that you're free to be disruptive during a public debate but you do not have the liberty to do so. I doubt, for example, that they force people to wear a muzzle when they attend such functions. An oft used quote of mine is, "I'm free to kill you. I do not have the liberty to do so."
I've heard (and it varies a lot) as high as "50,000,000" when they include civilian casualties and externalities. I think the 24,000,000 figure was from WWII in Color (a documentary series) and that one has stuck in my head since. I don't think the US is responsible for anything even close to that.
SystemD improves boot times meaning that your firearm will be ready faster!
I also don't know how many firearms are using this. I do own a bunch but not one of them has any software on it. (One does have a small hand-held computer that goes with it.) Err... I think that's running QNX, actually.
If elected, I'll see that it is proposed assuming that's something my constituents want me to do. My goal will be to represent them as best as I can. That may mean that I don't always get to act of my own volitions - because I am, specifically, promising not to. I'll be listening to the people who elected me and then asking smart people to help me make choices. I'll then vote according to the wishes of my constituents where possible which means not allowing a tyranny of the majority where the result is demonstrably harmful.
I'll see about getting it written up and share a copy when/if I do - if you're interested. Your legislation may have differences that make the two incompatible but it might be close enough to give them a starting point to work with.
That sounds like a blast. I'm going to *try* to record it on video and see if I can get some good snaps. I think I've finally got the order figured out and I even plan on a finale with the aid of a neighbor, my son, and my daughter's affianced. I... Umm... Err... I probably could have bought a small, cheap, new car with what I spent on things that go boom. I don't often have both my kids with me at the same time any more. I figure that we might as well make it memorable. Even the neighbor has thrown in some extras and has some extra mortar tubes.
We'll be using flares. If I'd planned on doing this a little better, I'd have looked into an electronic ignition system. A rough estimate says, with finale, we should be good for about 30 minutes - which should also give an indication about the expense. There's going to be a good time had by all. Lots of kids will be visiting and the house is up quite a ways so we'll be doing it out on the beach (go past the gated communities and the golf course and then stay straight instead of going over towards the State Park - so you have a good idea of where it is) and it should be pretty safe.
I've *paid* for shows done before but I've never done quite this many on my own. (I have a buddy who is a pyrotechnic engineer and he gives me good rates and I do a yearly party back home in Maine.) Hmm... LOL You can come down if you want. You're not *that* far away. There are probably better and bigger shows that are much closer. There are two more spare bedrooms and then the rest of the house. There are still vacancies in town (it doesn't really start to get busy until mid-February but I suspect you know that).
We'll run a small test show on the 30th to ensure that everything goes as planned but that's going to be right around dusk. We're thinking about going to get some more and doing a show at 8:00 and then again at 11:45 - and just setting a bunch off. I'll be sober but I don't know about them so I'm still debating that. This would be a good time to have purchased a drone - I could put it up there and let it record parts of the show. Unfortunately, that has never happened and I've never really learned to fly one. It would be fun, however.
Oh, there's a lot to geek out about with history. TSR stands for Tactical Studies Rules and they made Dungeons & Dragons back before they were owned by a card game company and, now, a toy company. Dungeons & Dragons was not their first role playing project. Their early work was things like a set of rules for role-playing things like early aerial dog-fights so that one could game various alternative endings.
Personally? I watch a lot of documentaries and read a lot of books. None of that is done for scholarly pursuits or anything. It's just entertainment for me. I don't deign myself a historian (though it appears one needs no specific qualifications to use that title) and I'm certainly not an expert. What I have noticed are things like trends. An example of a few important trends:
Don't go poking the Russian bear. Do not disarm your population. Do not grant excessive powers by vote. Do not enact regulations based on fear. The slippery slope is real. Moderation is better than extremism.
I was out that way in the 1970s and then, for a short spell, again in the early 1990s. Other than that, I've been that way for a few Microsoft events but those are kind of in the opposite direction so I spent no additional time in Everett. I did have a younger friend who was in the Navy and stationed there. His ship was the USS Stennis and that was her home harbor. I've forgotten which carrier group she was assigned to but it might have been the Ford.
I have no knowledge beyond that and I don't rightly recall the Bikini girls from my latter visits. I've had the fortune of encountering them at other locations but paying people to remove their clothing is really not that exciting for me. If I am going to pay someone to remove their clothing then, frankly, it seems a bit self-defeating unless I'm paying for services that go beyond that point.
Not that I'm going to admit to such behavior, or anything, but that if I *were* going to do so then I'd want to purchase more services than people removing their clothing. With society as it is now, and with the prevalence of the internet, I can generally find find people who are willing to provide the clothing removal services (and more) for little or no financial investment.
Yeah, I should probably post this as an AC.;-) I won't. I stand by what I said or, more accurately, what I did not say.
I know that concepts that are longer than what fits on a bumper sticker are difficult for some people and that individual thought is considered an anomaly but I strongly encourage you to take a remedial course in reading comprehension. Allow me, if you will, to quote the most applicable part from my original missive:
That does not mean I want it to be entirely like everything was back then. Not at all. I just wish we would be somewhere different by now.
And, in case you think that I'm selectively quoting, allow me to cite yet another comment, from that same post, that leads into that statement - there more than 140 characters separating them, so I'm not surprised that you had difficulty with the comprehension aspect:
Somewhere, between what I was allowed to do and what kids are allowed to do now - there's gotta be a more interesting and educational way.
Now, I'll refrain from making comments about your mother but I will speculate that you've not actually been afforded the opportunity to get an education. This is something that I'm bothered by and something that I wish I had the opportunity to change at greater values than I am able to.
Finally, allow me to posit that you're a fine example of the subject of my message. Note, if you will, this quote:
How do they learn to fix things?
Rather than attempt to fix things, you asked a question based on your inability to comprehend the message and then make further judgments based on the erroneous conclusions. You're not interested in fixing things. You're interested in being "right." I would further speculate that you are neither able to fix things nor habitually "right" and that it's because the educational system has failed you and because you lacked sufficient motivation to get the applicable education on your own.
Do you have any further questions or comments, or was that enough?
Allow me to close with yet another quote from my initial commentary and, if you will, please give this some thought:
Hell, where do they go to learn to fix their wetware?
If I've forgotten then remind me in the spring and I'll take pics and video. You can live vicariously through me. If the absolute worst case happens then I have a friend who's a licensed pyrotechnical engineer. He's even done a few famous shows in NYC and D.C. and the set up at one of the Disney theme parks. I will have options.
This might actually give me an excuse to build or buy a 3-D printer. I suspect, with some work, I can get the foam insulation with the right external diameter to match the internal diameter of some black pipe, used in industrial, high pressure, steam environments. Then, I can print a cup sort of thing that has a base (again matching the internal diameter of the pipe - or slightly smaller), a bit like a wine cup, which will go in through the foam and hold the egg steady. I can then simply mill out some 1/4" plywood to match the internal diameter as well and be pretty accurate at matching the internal diameter with that.
I can then securely glue my egg cup to the wood. I'd then place the egg in the cup, wrap the cup with the appropriate sized foam insulation, and then slice along the opposite side (foam insulation is already slit on one side) and do the rest via breach loading. I can use fine threaded caps and have access to a threading machine and own a drill press.
All-in-all, I'd probably not just be limited to frozen eggs as ammunition. I could even make up a pre-loaded breech and seal it with a thin layer of wax and then just thread that entire piece on. So, I'd load the sabot and then thread on pre-loaded breeches (call 'em cartridges if you wish), and be able to make a whole bunch of them up with varied sizes. Once I figure out the firing characteristics, I can do firing tables. I've got a welding machine (I'm not the greatest at it - but I can make stuff stick together) and I can make a stand. Heck, I can make a remote firing system so I might not even lose an arm or an eyeball.
I think this needs to be done. I think the various ammunitions need to be studied. I'd like to see the effects from a frozen rotten egg. I should also find some prescription bottles and fill them with shot, concrete, or maybe a percussion cap and powder. With some help, I could rifle the inside of the tube but that seems like excess and like it might otherwise ruin a bad idea and make it more accurate. I own an obscene amount of property so it's not like I'll be risking the general public's health or property.
I've copied this to a text file and placed it in my/home directory on my computer that is back home and made a local copy. This must be done.
I'm not positive (mi espanole es muy mierda) but I think it's also 'corrupcion' with a little squiggly thing on the 'c.' (I can speak a bit of Spanish, borderline fluent, but I sure as hell have no idea how it is spelled. Also, it's more like Mexican that I speak. The Spaniards speak their language a little differently but I can communicate well enough if they slow down a little.
Yup. The strange thing is the people here who are exceedingly bad at math. 230e6 is not, in fact, as much money as one might expect.
In fact, we just had an article yesterday that I felt it was my duty to look into, for a change. It was about a tunnel in WA and it's not even a big tunnel. It's expected to be well over the 1.2e8 that it was originally budgeted for. Just the consulting group (rough estimate time - number pulled from my ass but probably pretty close) is going to model the traffic and give recommendations and I'd expect that to cost slightly more than this "boondoggle."
The kicker is, the consulting engineers that actually took all the information and crunched it came back with bunch of recommendations and they chose to listen to only a few of them. I almost guarantee that they'll not get quite what they wanted (but they did have a good engineer on the program, except he's now passed away) and end up spending even more money.
That's for a tunnel in WA. Yeah... This is 6x less expensive and, really, that's not a lot of money. I understand that it seems like it but you're not even into buying your own personal jet and keeping it staffed and prepared to run 24/7 (and pay other reasonable expenses) with that kind of money. Well, maybe for very small values of jet. It'd be a stupid expense but I guess you could probably get a little Gulfstream or something. Pilots and maintaining a plane are expensive.
That's roughly the size of a contract to model, consult, and engineer a bypass around Atlanta in the 1990s and it doesn't even mean creating it from scratch but upgrading it from the 1940s. That's not doing the design, that's not doing the construction, and that's not accepting liability for those things. This is optimizing throughput, safety, maximizing potential exit/entrances, and minimizing impacts. This isn't even doing the EIS (Environmental Impact Study.) This isn't even providing one iota of asphalt. It might be that one or two people remain on-site for 7 to 10 years. The heavy work was done by them before they even had a plan.
This is not giving one recommendation for maximum loads on an overpass. It's *just* modeling, predicting, optimizing, and consulting - giving them a bunch of choices and letting them pick which they want to follow, showing which is best, which is least expensive (never say cheapest), and where the greatest value will be for the tax-payer. It's recommending design elements, areas to travel, locations optimized for ingress and egress, methods to maximize throughput, specific safety elements, recommended signage use patterns, and things of that nature. It's not picking up a shovel - it starts way before that and might not even result in *anything* being constructed - ever. It might be a plan put away to act on in 20 years if the municipality has the funds to consider it at that time.
And they don't even *listen* to it. At best, they implement maybe 80% of the recommendations. -- that's the important part.
So, yeah... This is *not* a whole lot of money. This is like a married couple, of moderate wealth, doing a study to find out who's accountable for losing $0.0072 in the couch cushions. Shit, I wonder how much they spent "dissecting" this, filing reports, and assigning blame. But no, it's a tragedy... I think some people are either really bad at mathematics or, worse, have no clue what your government is spending on shit.
In case anyone is curious, it was Mr. Iboshi who passed away. He was a hell of a creative traffic engineer. If you've been on the PCH and enjoyed it, thank him for the improvements made to it. (Not the aesthetics, the functionality and flow of traffic - while some congestion is an unfortunate result but impossible to *realistically* prevent in its entirety.) It is because of him, and him alone, that I suspect the WA project will turn out okay even though it appears they'll be implementing fewer than 80% of his recommendations. The industry is less without him.
Libertarianism is not an economic model but a political ideology. I am a Libertarian. While I'm not overly fond of the term, I don't have time to give you an eduction this morning. So, suffice to say, I'm often referred to as a "Socialist Libertarian." See the first four or five paragraphs on Wikipedia, it's actually authored fairly well.
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I expect them to cost more initially. Then, over time, as the benefits reach fruition we'll see that it less expensive to put healthy people into upwardly mobile employment than it is to warehouse them in jails. (I do have a few things in common with socialists but I used logic, instead of feelings, to reach those conclusions.)
For example, I support paying taxes for a strong social safety net. It's cheaper than hiring my own security guards or paying for damage after the hoards have broken in and stolen my shit. I like my shit. That's why I bought it. It's much cheaper to give you the means to get your own shit than it is to try to keep hoards of people from taking mine.
Err... I'm a Libertarian, actually. Not a Randian. I'll be dead and gone before Bernie's plans reach full fruition. I'm okay with that. I don't actually need anything more in life. I'm good to go and there's no much that can harm me any more, even some extra tax dollars. I'd almost certainly not alter even a little bit of my behavior if my taxes were raised. I'd rather your kids (mine are set) actually have something to be proud of, as a country, again.
I have no idea how that got posted as an AC. :/
That brings new meaning to "hacking 127.0.0.1" now doesn't it?
Unfortunately, from what I have read (that whole terms and conditions thing) you're not buying e-books. In most cases, you're licensing them and that license doesn't necessarily include the ability to transfer that license. This appears to be relatively common with non-tangible product licenses.
I dunno... I've seen some documentaries and we've had a few forks and we've had a few major versions since we climbed down from the trees. Or, if you want, since before we climbed into 'em.
You tap the brake, cut the wheel into as if to head oncoming traffic, pull the emergency brake (which will lock the rear tires) and immediately cut the wheel back to center line, brake with the pedal, release the e-brake, and put your car backwards into the ditch. You avoid harming yourself (much) by putting the rear of the vehicle into the obstacle(s), you avoid the truck, and you avoid the child. If you have enough time to think about it, you can slow yourself down more rapidly by using the accelerator pedal once you've reached the point where the vehicle has begun to turn sideways. You can do even more with a standard transmission by employing engine braking in a variety of situations.
However, if there's a pile of nuns hiding in the ditch then you just drive straight for it - after hitting the gas so that you can speed up and miss both the kids and the nuns hidden in the ditch. But the flaming hulk of a fuel delivery truck is still going to kill them all - and you, when they failed to brake properly and were following too close while not noticing they were on fire.
The first is actually an evasion maneuver. If you want then you can take a variety of advanced driving courses that cover everything from off-road, to track, to rally, to defensive, and even to rock climbing lessons. They're moderately expensive but they're worth it as many of them will actually put you into a five point restraint and allow you the freedom to wreck a car should you fail to grasp the lessons completely. Yes, yes I have found those schools that have dented cars tend to be among the best - even in areas where you're learning to drive on a track. However, this probably doesn't extend to open-wheel automobiles. I've not seen any dented ones in any of those courses.
Slowing down and swerving are not always the two choices that you're limited to. There are many different options that include ways to minimize risk. The greatest step you can take is to not drive faster than the conditions allow. (This is not always the posted speed limit and is quite subjective.)
There should be no luck and no panic. Those should not happen - ever. (Not that they don't, but that they should not.) I say this as someone who has spent a great deal of time working specifically with traffic (including safety aspects), driven professionally, taken many driving courses, and owns what can best be called 'a stable of automobiles.'
If you have lost control of your vehicle and have an accident then there's a near 100% certainty that you were driving too fast for the conditions. (I realize that sentence confuses some people, read it carefully.) If you panic in an emergency situation, you should not be driving. If you are unable to maintain control of your vehicle then you should not be driving. If you are unable or unwilling to adapt your driving to the conditions then you should not be driving.
In short, there are many people on the road who should not be on the road. Will autonomous vehicles help with this? Probably. i hope so. However, I have strong reservations with a variety of issues including the time estimates given by many optimistic people who think the tech will be here soon and the privacy implications associated with the idea of ubiquitous fully autonomous vehicles.
Eh? Well, he may have enabled adults to think for themselves and allow consenting people to purchase products that let them feel happy for a time. It might have encouraged individual thought or action. I'd say that's pretty dangerous! We can't have people taking control of their own bodies and minds. Think of the children!
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Oddly enough, I have this link in my bookmarks:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/...
You might wish to spend a few minutes reading that article about how the world has butchered Ben's quote on liberty vs. security.
Mad, nude, the TSA, and a bottle of honey???
That sounds like it might lead to a very *interesting* evening. Well, if Dawkins weren't present. No, actually, it should be a televised event and Dawkins can be one of the announcers or commentators.
He and I are both capitalists. I've purchased all of his weekly allotment of commas. I fully expect to use the shotgun approach and have extraneous commas in my posts.
I am pretty sure a NSL does not have the power to give instructions of that nature. There are other mechanisms, surely, but the NSL isn't some all-powerful tool - based on quite a bit of reading and seeing a number of examples that have been leaked to the public.
An NSL doesn't tell you to censor content. An NSL tells you to monitor and record content and share that content with the relative authorities. It may also include instructions that prevent you from making this process known to the public. An NSL might apply to past and future actions but does not, by itself, have the power to force them to censor or do any one of a number of other things that people ascribe to the NSLs.
There's a chance that I'm mistaken but, in as much as I've read, the NSL simply doesn't carry those types of powers. It does not, for example, force companies to put back doors in software or hardware. That is via another legal mechanism whose name I've forgotten. It may, on the other hand, tell the company to make use of those back doors and to forward or retain the information gathered from them.
It is quite possible for public discourse to be done in a civil manner. In fact, the vast majority of my posts are civil. On the other hand, it's quite possible to be trolling while maintaining an air of civility and politeness. I may well be guilty of the latter but, if done, it generally actually had a purpose and the responses indicate that at least a few people understood the reasoning and methodology.
Tools, including mannerisms and speech, can be used for good or ill. It's easier to kill with a scalpel than it is to heal, after all.
I'd also question the use of the word "freedom." Chances are good that you're free to be disruptive during a public debate but you do not have the liberty to do so. I doubt, for example, that they force people to wear a muzzle when they attend such functions. An oft used quote of mine is, "I'm free to kill you. I do not have the liberty to do so."
With that said, trolling is a art.
I've heard (and it varies a lot) as high as "50,000,000" when they include civilian casualties and externalities. I think the 24,000,000 figure was from WWII in Color (a documentary series) and that one has stuck in my head since. I don't think the US is responsible for anything even close to that.
SystemD improves boot times meaning that your firearm will be ready faster!
I also don't know how many firearms are using this. I do own a bunch but not one of them has any software on it. (One does have a small hand-held computer that goes with it.) Err... I think that's running QNX, actually.
If elected, I'll see that it is proposed assuming that's something my constituents want me to do. My goal will be to represent them as best as I can. That may mean that I don't always get to act of my own volitions - because I am, specifically, promising not to. I'll be listening to the people who elected me and then asking smart people to help me make choices. I'll then vote according to the wishes of my constituents where possible which means not allowing a tyranny of the majority where the result is demonstrably harmful.
I'll see about getting it written up and share a copy when/if I do - if you're interested. Your legislation may have differences that make the two incompatible but it might be close enough to give them a starting point to work with.
That sounds like a blast. I'm going to *try* to record it on video and see if I can get some good snaps. I think I've finally got the order figured out and I even plan on a finale with the aid of a neighbor, my son, and my daughter's affianced. I... Umm... Err... I probably could have bought a small, cheap, new car with what I spent on things that go boom. I don't often have both my kids with me at the same time any more. I figure that we might as well make it memorable. Even the neighbor has thrown in some extras and has some extra mortar tubes.
We'll be using flares. If I'd planned on doing this a little better, I'd have looked into an electronic ignition system. A rough estimate says, with finale, we should be good for about 30 minutes - which should also give an indication about the expense. There's going to be a good time had by all. Lots of kids will be visiting and the house is up quite a ways so we'll be doing it out on the beach (go past the gated communities and the golf course and then stay straight instead of going over towards the State Park - so you have a good idea of where it is) and it should be pretty safe.
I've *paid* for shows done before but I've never done quite this many on my own. (I have a buddy who is a pyrotechnic engineer and he gives me good rates and I do a yearly party back home in Maine.) Hmm... LOL You can come down if you want. You're not *that* far away. There are probably better and bigger shows that are much closer. There are two more spare bedrooms and then the rest of the house. There are still vacancies in town (it doesn't really start to get busy until mid-February but I suspect you know that).
We'll run a small test show on the 30th to ensure that everything goes as planned but that's going to be right around dusk. We're thinking about going to get some more and doing a show at 8:00 and then again at 11:45 - and just setting a bunch off. I'll be sober but I don't know about them so I'm still debating that. This would be a good time to have purchased a drone - I could put it up there and let it record parts of the show. Unfortunately, that has never happened and I've never really learned to fly one. It would be fun, however.
Oh, there's a lot to geek out about with history. TSR stands for Tactical Studies Rules and they made Dungeons & Dragons back before they were owned by a card game company and, now, a toy company. Dungeons & Dragons was not their first role playing project. Their early work was things like a set of rules for role-playing things like early aerial dog-fights so that one could game various alternative endings.
Personally? I watch a lot of documentaries and read a lot of books. None of that is done for scholarly pursuits or anything. It's just entertainment for me. I don't deign myself a historian (though it appears one needs no specific qualifications to use that title) and I'm certainly not an expert. What I have noticed are things like trends. An example of a few important trends:
Don't go poking the Russian bear.
Do not disarm your population.
Do not grant excessive powers by vote.
Do not enact regulations based on fear.
The slippery slope is real.
Moderation is better than extremism.
But, nobody listens to a KGIII.
I was out that way in the 1970s and then, for a short spell, again in the early 1990s. Other than that, I've been that way for a few Microsoft events but those are kind of in the opposite direction so I spent no additional time in Everett. I did have a younger friend who was in the Navy and stationed there. His ship was the USS Stennis and that was her home harbor. I've forgotten which carrier group she was assigned to but it might have been the Ford.
I have no knowledge beyond that and I don't rightly recall the Bikini girls from my latter visits. I've had the fortune of encountering them at other locations but paying people to remove their clothing is really not that exciting for me. If I am going to pay someone to remove their clothing then, frankly, it seems a bit self-defeating unless I'm paying for services that go beyond that point.
Not that I'm going to admit to such behavior, or anything, but that if I *were* going to do so then I'd want to purchase more services than people removing their clothing. With society as it is now, and with the prevalence of the internet, I can generally find find people who are willing to provide the clothing removal services (and more) for little or no financial investment.
Yeah, I should probably post this as an AC. ;-) I won't. I stand by what I said or, more accurately, what I did not say.
I know that concepts that are longer than what fits on a bumper sticker are difficult for some people and that individual thought is considered an anomaly but I strongly encourage you to take a remedial course in reading comprehension. Allow me, if you will, to quote the most applicable part from my original missive:
That does not mean I want it to be entirely like everything was back then. Not at all. I just wish we would be somewhere different by now.
And, in case you think that I'm selectively quoting, allow me to cite yet another comment, from that same post, that leads into that statement - there more than 140 characters separating them, so I'm not surprised that you had difficulty with the comprehension aspect:
Somewhere, between what I was allowed to do and what kids are allowed to do now - there's gotta be a more interesting and educational way.
Now, I'll refrain from making comments about your mother but I will speculate that you've not actually been afforded the opportunity to get an education. This is something that I'm bothered by and something that I wish I had the opportunity to change at greater values than I am able to.
Finally, allow me to posit that you're a fine example of the subject of my message. Note, if you will, this quote:
How do they learn to fix things?
Rather than attempt to fix things, you asked a question based on your inability to comprehend the message and then make further judgments based on the erroneous conclusions. You're not interested in fixing things. You're interested in being "right." I would further speculate that you are neither able to fix things nor habitually "right" and that it's because the educational system has failed you and because you lacked sufficient motivation to get the applicable education on your own.
Do you have any further questions or comments, or was that enough?
Allow me to close with yet another quote from my initial commentary and, if you will, please give this some thought:
Hell, where do they go to learn to fix their wetware?
If I've forgotten then remind me in the spring and I'll take pics and video. You can live vicariously through me. If the absolute worst case happens then I have a friend who's a licensed pyrotechnical engineer. He's even done a few famous shows in NYC and D.C. and the set up at one of the Disney theme parks. I will have options.
This might actually give me an excuse to build or buy a 3-D printer. I suspect, with some work, I can get the foam insulation with the right external diameter to match the internal diameter of some black pipe, used in industrial, high pressure, steam environments. Then, I can print a cup sort of thing that has a base (again matching the internal diameter of the pipe - or slightly smaller), a bit like a wine cup, which will go in through the foam and hold the egg steady. I can then simply mill out some 1/4" plywood to match the internal diameter as well and be pretty accurate at matching the internal diameter with that.
I can then securely glue my egg cup to the wood. I'd then place the egg in the cup, wrap the cup with the appropriate sized foam insulation, and then slice along the opposite side (foam insulation is already slit on one side) and do the rest via breach loading. I can use fine threaded caps and have access to a threading machine and own a drill press.
All-in-all, I'd probably not just be limited to frozen eggs as ammunition. I could even make up a pre-loaded breech and seal it with a thin layer of wax and then just thread that entire piece on. So, I'd load the sabot and then thread on pre-loaded breeches (call 'em cartridges if you wish), and be able to make a whole bunch of them up with varied sizes. Once I figure out the firing characteristics, I can do firing tables. I've got a welding machine (I'm not the greatest at it - but I can make stuff stick together) and I can make a stand. Heck, I can make a remote firing system so I might not even lose an arm or an eyeball.
I think this needs to be done. I think the various ammunitions need to be studied. I'd like to see the effects from a frozen rotten egg. I should also find some prescription bottles and fill them with shot, concrete, or maybe a percussion cap and powder. With some help, I could rifle the inside of the tube but that seems like excess and like it might otherwise ruin a bad idea and make it more accurate. I own an obscene amount of property so it's not like I'll be risking the general public's health or property.
I've copied this to a text file and placed it in my /home directory on my computer that is back home and made a local copy. This must be done.
I'm not positive (mi espanole es muy mierda) but I think it's also 'corrupcion' with a little squiggly thing on the 'c.' (I can speak a bit of Spanish, borderline fluent, but I sure as hell have no idea how it is spelled. Also, it's more like Mexican that I speak. The Spaniards speak their language a little differently but I can communicate well enough if they slow down a little.
Yup. The strange thing is the people here who are exceedingly bad at math. 230e6 is not, in fact, as much money as one might expect.
In fact, we just had an article yesterday that I felt it was my duty to look into, for a change. It was about a tunnel in WA and it's not even a big tunnel. It's expected to be well over the 1.2e8 that it was originally budgeted for. Just the consulting group (rough estimate time - number pulled from my ass but probably pretty close) is going to model the traffic and give recommendations and I'd expect that to cost slightly more than this "boondoggle."
The kicker is, the consulting engineers that actually took all the information and crunched it came back with bunch of recommendations and they chose to listen to only a few of them. I almost guarantee that they'll not get quite what they wanted (but they did have a good engineer on the program, except he's now passed away) and end up spending even more money.
That's for a tunnel in WA. Yeah... This is 6x less expensive and, really, that's not a lot of money. I understand that it seems like it but you're not even into buying your own personal jet and keeping it staffed and prepared to run 24/7 (and pay other reasonable expenses) with that kind of money. Well, maybe for very small values of jet. It'd be a stupid expense but I guess you could probably get a little Gulfstream or something. Pilots and maintaining a plane are expensive.
That's roughly the size of a contract to model, consult, and engineer a bypass around Atlanta in the 1990s and it doesn't even mean creating it from scratch but upgrading it from the 1940s. That's not doing the design, that's not doing the construction, and that's not accepting liability for those things. This is optimizing throughput, safety, maximizing potential exit/entrances, and minimizing impacts. This isn't even doing the EIS (Environmental Impact Study.) This isn't even providing one iota of asphalt. It might be that one or two people remain on-site for 7 to 10 years. The heavy work was done by them before they even had a plan.
This is not giving one recommendation for maximum loads on an overpass. It's *just* modeling, predicting, optimizing, and consulting - giving them a bunch of choices and letting them pick which they want to follow, showing which is best, which is least expensive (never say cheapest), and where the greatest value will be for the tax-payer. It's recommending design elements, areas to travel, locations optimized for ingress and egress, methods to maximize throughput, specific safety elements, recommended signage use patterns, and things of that nature. It's not picking up a shovel - it starts way before that and might not even result in *anything* being constructed - ever. It might be a plan put away to act on in 20 years if the municipality has the funds to consider it at that time.
And they don't even *listen* to it. At best, they implement maybe 80% of the recommendations. -- that's the important part.
So, yeah... This is *not* a whole lot of money. This is like a married couple, of moderate wealth, doing a study to find out who's accountable for losing $0.0072 in the couch cushions. Shit, I wonder how much they spent "dissecting" this, filing reports, and assigning blame. But no, it's a tragedy... I think some people are either really bad at mathematics or, worse, have no clue what your government is spending on shit.
In case anyone is curious, it was Mr. Iboshi who passed away. He was a hell of a creative traffic engineer. If you've been on the PCH and enjoyed it, thank him for the improvements made to it. (Not the aesthetics, the functionality and flow of traffic - while some congestion is an unfortunate result but impossible to *realistically* prevent in its entirety.) It is because of him, and him alone, that I suspect the WA project will turn out okay even though it appears they'll be implementing fewer than 80% of his recommendations. The industry is less without him.
Libertarianism is not an economic model but a political ideology. I am a Libertarian. While I'm not overly fond of the term, I don't have time to give you an eduction this morning. So, suffice to say, I'm often referred to as a "Socialist Libertarian." See the first four or five paragraphs on Wikipedia, it's actually authored fairly well.
Hmm... I see your name and it's followed up, in my head, with "too lazy to crow for days."
No, I don't imagine that makes things any less muddied.