I'm thinking of the millions of Long Duck Dong accounts.

The sig lines alone would be worth it.

The reason the RQ-4 has not gotten munitions is because it would be, by SALT II, a cruise missile if armed with deployable kinetics.

Did anyone else first read that as "deployable kittens?" No?

That's ok - it didn't really phase me either.

"Right now the closest thing you're going to get is creating a whole new profile."

Why is this a problem? People have been maintaining separate internet persona's since it started. And modern browser features make it easier: don't feel like filling out the same info for 3 different profiles? Browser auto-fill will handle that, as well as remember your different logins and passwords.

What am I missing here?

Let's just ask the octopus how to invest.

So you're saying that, when the BEM's come and take over our communication systems, France won't get the message via ham radio and so won't know to fly a Mirage straight up into the death ray, spelling the end of their country and culture?

I'm good with that.

"It was revealed quite some time ago that Shatner's "dramatic pauses" were due to him trying to remember his lines. "

The story I heard was that, when he was doing the movie "Incubus" in esperanto, the pauses were an artifact of him speaking his lines from rote. At first he was very frustrated with the effect, but the directors actually liked the effect it had, so he kept doing it and it became his style.

You are missing 1 fundamental requirement - do these activities WITH your child. While it's true that "a child's interests can be largely determined by their personality, their school, and their social environment", the biggest and earliest factor is parental behavior and actions. A child's first reaction to seeing a parent doing something is mimicry - they want to do whatever Daddy/Mommy are doing. So if a parent shows interest in computers, or the mechanical world, so will the child (generally speaking).

My son is a good example of this - when he was younger, he ALWAYS wanted to be doing what I was doing. One day I was bleeding the brakes in my truck, and he wanted to "help". So I gave him a screwdriver, and he got under the truck with me (he could almost stand under there) and started poking at things while I messes with bleeder screws. Was he "accomplishing" anything? No. But he was learning that messing with things mechanically wasn't scary, and that it's something Daddy likes to do, and therefore it was good. (He may also have learned some swear words as well - oops). Years later he still shows interest in things mechanical, etc.

Buy the legos; buy the erector set. Then do it WITH him (or her).

Re:On the other hand... (Score:5, Funny)
by whoop (194) writes: Alter Relationship on Mon Jun 14, '10 05:48 AM (#32562604) Homepage

I've heard of these 4-digiters, but never seen one myself...

Ah, the irony of Slashdot UID's - it's the only dick measuring contest where the winner is the smallest one...

"That will take a CAD drawing and build me a Lego model from it. :p"

Even better - a Lego Von Neumann machine...

I'm thinking "Mom and the Kids" by Niven and Drake.

Favorite family anecdote:
Setting: Traditional Italian Sunday dinner at my grandparent's house.

My grandmother is picking at my grandfather at the table. Bitching about this and that he did or didn't do, with the occasional direct shot at his person. This was pretty much normal - my grandparents had 3 daughters, all of whom thought their mother was a saint, so Grandpop had learned to just shut up and let it pass. He was also pretty non-confrontational in general; a former seminarian, and never raised a hand as far as I know (Grandmom, otoh...).

But this time it was pretty bad. After about 45 minutes, I think he realized that his grandkids were in their late teens and he didn't really need to watch his language so much. So after Grandmom got in a particularly nasty shot, he looks straight at her and says "Hey, Florence - FUCK YOU!" Cue the crickets as Grandmom gapes and sputters like a freshly cought fish, her daughters get red and shoot him nasty looks, and the male grandkids are trying desperately to hide our grins and looking at each other with gleeful solidarity in our expressions. Suffice it to say Grandmom didn't say much for the rest of the meal, and "Hey Florence - Fuck You" became one of our treasured memories (at least for the male cousins).

Another tidbit. Whenever the grandsons started acting up at his house, he'd look straight at us and say "I'm-a gonna take off my belt", and we'd stop whatever we were doing right quick. This worked when we were kids and until we got less mischievous; he never had to actually take off his belt, much less use it, and I hadn't heard him say it since I was about 12.

Fast forward 5 years. My cousin and I both wrestled in HS, but for opposing teams and at different weights. One evening, as Grandpop was in the middle of his evening routine (Lazy-boy, Richie Ashburn calling for the Phillies on TV, and a Schmidt's pony)we started trash talking, and then started to wrestle in the living room. It's a tiny house, so obviously we were distracting Granpop (we were actually right in front of the TV) and he didn't like fighting.

So he tells us to knock it off; we ignore him.

He escalates to "I'm-a gonna take off my belt"; we pause, but since he'd never actually taken it off in the past, we ignored him again.

About 2 minutes later, we both look up to see Grandpop out of his recliner, standing over us (all 5'2" of him) with his 30 year old thin black leather belt halfway off his waist. I don't know when I've ever moved faster in a wrestling match as when we broke off, stood up, and apologized.

Sure, they'll work in MD - I270 corridor, etc.

But they'll live in Virginia - the state of MD, and specifically Montgomery County, is one of the most expensive places in the US to live. Oh, and your entrepreneurship pays off and you make some money? MD just decided it would tax people making over $1M at a higher rate. Since most of those folks live in Montgomery County, a lot have picked up an moved across the river, taking their local spending with them.

People TALK about social issues - they DECIDE on financial ones. And people have been deciding to move from MD to VA for decades.

"then they can go out to the asteriod belt and hurl an endless supply of ammunition at us that would decimate us "

A quibble - to "decimate" means to kill 1 out of 10. I think an asteroid bombardment would have higher than 10% casualties.

"Collecting good data is hard work, and the payoff is big publications, which you need if you want to continue getting funded. "

Really? When I do hard work, my payoff is...getting paid. Do you not receive a paycheck?

"I don't care if you are a ditch digger or a particle physicist. Doing all the hard work and getting none of the credit sucks regardless of what we are discussing or who is paying the bills. So put up or shut up. Would you be willing to do all of the grunt work in your job, but take none of the recognition? Most people wouldn't - those are the kinds of jobs that make people go 'Postal'. If you aren't doing it (and even if you are), do you really expect anyone else to?"

And so to the root of the problem. Somehow, people have gotten into their heads that they deserve a reward for doing what is expected. But the last I checked, a reward is for doing something extraordinary. Doing "hard work" should get you what you have contracted for - period. Do something extraordinary (in the literal sense of "above ordinary") and then one might "expect" a reward.

The idea of "work for pay" died when the first shitty waiter said "Where's my tip?!" and didn't get fired/smacked.

Not two - three. They also need to split off the content production and distribution. For instance, Comcast will shortly own ALL levels of delivering some content - NBC for production, internet and CATV for distribution, and the in-home hardware so you can watch it.

Last time I checked, vertical integration was considered a bad thing.

They did the same thing with "90 % of all accidents involve excessive speed". They used accident reports from local police who routinely checked "excessive speed" off as a "default" cause.