This is a good example of why I prefer to live where the local top police official is elected, not appointed.

I really wish I'd pirated a copy of MacBasic instead of buying Microsoft's lame BASIC for Macintosh ( http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=MacBasic.txt ).

Every time I pick up my Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4121 running Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, I wish it were running Go Corp.'s PenPoint ( http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Silicon-Adventure-Jerry-Kaplan/dp/0140257314 http://www.amazon.com/ThinkPad-Different-J-Gerry-Purdy/dp/0672317567/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368791379&sr=1-1&keywords=thinkpad )

It kills me that I can't buy Creaturehouse Expression for a new version of Mac OS X ( http://www.creativemac.com/article/Microsoft-Buys-Creature-House-Assets-21443 )

Or that I can't upgrade my copy of Altamira Composer or that the plug got pulled on Altsys Virtuoso for Windows NT.

&c.

Well, for the automated greenhouse there are some commercial ones, and on a small scale there're Aerogrow tabletop gardens (but I don't think their fertilizer usage is sustainable (search for ``peak phosphorous'')

I've thought for a while that FEMA should develop a concrete block for disaster relief which could be poured on site and filled with:

  - window greenhouses for food
  - rain water collection system and filtration system
  - small sink
  - composting toilet
  - solar panels, LED lighting and a bicycle connected to a generator
  - fold up sleeping pallets which double as seating

Once the disaster was over people could build a house around it.

There were a number of HyperCard clones for Windows:

  SuperCard
  Runtime Revolution
  Asymetrix Toolbook

And not knowing the difference between insulting invective and an ad hominem fallacy just proves that you are stupid.

Here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoomracks

I just want to see a tool which makes it easy to collect information, sort it out, edit it and keep it all consistent --- been using tools for this since Zoomracks came out, and still haven't found the perfect tool.

I don't know. Why don't you go look it up and tell us?

Oh, actually studying the science is hard you say? You'd prefer to parrot Heartland Institute talking points? Tough shit. Fuck off, denialist.

My GF introduced me to the show, she had gotten it via a friend of hers (who, unfortunately, did fit the horrible stereotype people have of bronies).

What struck me from the beginning was the obvious knowledge and love the creators have for the classic American cartoons of the 40s and 50s. Most episodes are a straight homage to the works of such luminaries as Tex Avery and Charles Schultz. Given the executive producer, that is no surprise.

I don't generally go for fandom, so I don't self-identify as a brony, and I even had my GF design me a t-shirt with a pony in a Ghostbusters-like traffic sign proclaiming me as 'not a brony'. Which of course does identify me as a fan.

It's a neat show. I'd definitely class it as a modern classic of comedic animation.

Mart

I worked at an NRC institute from 2002-2011. It was a fantastic place though it had faults. Each Institute was a mini-fiefdom in which the respective Director Generals held all the power. A lot of blue sky research was done, however in reality a lot of it would be considered "mental masturbation"; papers were published but never referenced. Or papers would be whipped up so people could attend conferences in nice locales . For too long NRC acted like an academic environment where money didn't matter: there was always a new bag of money next year.

Many Institutes had overlapping work with other Institutes but didn't collaborate. In fact the way the IT infrastructure developed was also very silo'd, it was next to impossible to work with other sites because of various local policies.

NRC has needed a good kick in the ass for a number of years. Previous presidents talked the talk but did nothing. In the end the Old Boys Club endured. The current president has been given his orders and is executing them. He's collapsing ~15 years of pain into ~3. Much of the blame for this should be put on the previous presidents.

That all said, I'm not a big fan of everything that is going on, but if you look at this as a soft reset for NRC, things will get better.

Bottom line: if anyone at NRC says things were Just Fine before, they are delusional or lying.

NY Times Editor Margaret Sullivan quoting Robert Heinlein.

http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/transparency-secrecy-and-retaliation-emerge-as-major-issues-in-benghazi-coverage/

``The failures of government transparency, too,
cross party lines. Rooted in political expediency,
those failures of transparency know no color,
neither red nor blue. And they need to be pointed
out and resisted. As author Robert A. Heinlein
wrote, ``Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.' ''

(my thanks to Danny Burstein for bringing this to my attention or usent:rec.arts.sf.written.)

The organic farmer selling non-GMO crops who sues for damages 'cause his plants are cross-pollenated by a neighboring farmer using GMO seeds who doesn't follow the guidelines for planting a barrier row of non-GMO plants around the edges of his field.

Not only that, vast swaths of forest are planted as pulpwood, which requires huge energy inputs to convert to paper --- the manufacture of one hardcover book uses enough energy to put roughly 8.85 pounds of CO_2 into the atmosphere.

The three martini lunch is dead?