I don't feel bad about not getting any wierd e-mail at work to share with you recently, since my co-workers are keeping you entertained
Freedom of speech is great, but the freedoms the press takes with taking one tiny statement out of context, wrapping their own context around it, then blowing it completely fscking out of proportion has me gagging on my Wheaties.
Frankly, I don't want the government, a stalker, a criminal, or anyone else tracking my activities, behavior, movements, beliefs, personal interests, family members, friends, and so forth through
The DOE has announced a record breaking performance of 70.72 teraFLOP/s from the BlueGene/L (BG/L) supercomputer, running at just a quarter of its final size. Not even finished, BlueGene/L is already kicking the daylights out of long-standing #1, Earth Simulator, and not just for speed: the completed BG/L will exceed Earth Simulator's performance by a factor of about nine (360 teraFLOP/s!) while requiring one-seventh as much electrical power, and one-fourteenth the floor space. Lawrence Livermore National Lab will be taking delivery of the first quarter of BG/L, developed by IBM and DOE for the nation's Stockpile Stewardship Program, this month.
Now the long hours are over, and I've got my life back - so I once again have time to read the latest
The first post in this series concerns one of several government facilities designed to adjust the Earth's rotation as needed. One reference I found to this was Retroweb's Lynchburg attractions page.
E-mail Received at Work:
Hello, I found an article online that stated the following:
"Lynchburg VA is home to an unusual scientific facility, a "rotational tuning" station, part of a global network of twenty-four such stations operated jointly by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. Each station houses three powerful F-5 rocket engines which are fired in tandem with those at all stations around the globe when it becomes necessary to make minuscule corrections in the Earth's rotational speed (angular velocity). The global array was built in the early 1970's and has been used for two corrections, the most recent firing occurring on August 16, 1988 in which a synchronized burn lasted 8 minutes and 14 seconds. Another correction was scheduled for May 2003, but was cancelled after it was deemed unnecessary. Rotational Tuning Facility #9 is just south of River Ridge Mall in Lynchburg, however, the facility is within a government restricted area and visitors are not allowed."
I can not find any information online that this or any other facility exists. Do these exist, and is this possible?
No, I really don't know what the slugs are doing in this list...
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An acquaintance of mine relayed the following experience at an ATM:
He went to the ATM machine, performed a transaction, then walked away from the machine, forgetting his card. The next guy in line pulled the card out, put it back in and pulled out $100 and was never asked to enter the PIN number for the card. The third person found the card and turned it into the bank. My acquaintance complained to the bank, who said, in effect, "yeah, we know about this 'feature' but it's too petty to worry about" and reimbursed the stolen $100.
To clarify, it appears once a card has been used, the PIN successfully entered, and the transaction completed, that the ATM remembers the PIN/authorization and allows the cardholder to subsequently insert the card and complete additional transactions without reauthorization (i.e. entering the PIN) provided (I assume) second card hasn't been used and somehow cleared knowledge of the first card.
I cannot vouch for the reliability of this tale, and I didn't turn up anything specific about this 'feature' in the 15 seconds I spent searching the net.
Does anyone else have experience, knowledge, or information about this that corroborates this tale? I'll keep looking and post anything I find.
Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with none.
