To some extent, I suppose I am a Space Nutter myself. It must have been about 1957 that I first opened some Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke and other SF books and thrilled to the stories of galactic exploration and gigantic interstellar empires. I'm all for manned space exploration, even though I must admit that nowadays I can't entirely justify it in practical terms.
But what's this stuff about "the end of man kind"?
Why do people mod "Troll" or "Flamebait" when I ask them to explain what they are talking about? I'm disinclined to bandy insults in a forum that I thought was aimed at constructive discussion and debate. Maybe I should taper off reading Slashdot, and stop contributing.
"Cutting us off from space is the worst thing we can do, and will certainly result in the end of man kind".
Eh? What on earth are you talking about? Please explain how not sending a tiny handful of astronauts into space, at immense cost and considerable risk, will affect the survival of the race. As far as I know no one, not even the most wildly enthusiastic advocate of space exploration, has ever said anything of the kind.
Actually, it isn't. The USA spent $5 billion - quite openly - to foment a coup d'etat which overthrew the democratically elected government of Ukraine and replaced with an unelected bunch of foaming fascist killers. This was probably intended to provoke the Russians into invading to protect their people. That was never going to work, though; the Russians are famous for chess skill, and they more or less pioneered the art of "maskirovka" - the misleading feint, followed by an unexpected blow elsewhere. They were hardly going to fall into such an obvious bear trap.
What's more, economically and politically it would be very unfavourable for Russia to get involved in Ukraine - let alone invade or take over. Ukraine is a relatively poor nation these days, and Russia would just acquire a lot of headaches and liabilities - not to mention precipitating an extremely dangerous military confrontation with NATO.
The Russians' best course, as I am sure they are aware, is to stand back and watch Obama and his minions play their silly games. Meanwhile, they can sell their oil and gas to China and other Asian nations, and talk quietly to China, Pakistan, Iran and other countries actively threatened by US aggression. And one of these days, they will all stop using the dollar.
Periodic copying, on a copier/xerox, of the contents of your wallet works well. Make sure you copy both sides of credit cards and such, as they have numbers to call for cancellation or replacement. You could even simply scan the contents, then encrypt and store it somewhere.
What is this "copier/xerox/scanner" you speak of? Are you also going to telefax the copy you made to the secure location?
The correct method is to place the document on a wooden table and photograph it with your cellphone.
The thing is, the phone didn't cause this, accident rates have not significantly gone up....these people were always out there...they were just less identifiable.
So now we have an easy way to identify them?
Time to put their insurance premiums through the roof.
Yes, it's kind of a very lucky virtuous circle that leads to great wealth and success. You need Woz (the brains), but without Jobs (the huckster) Woz would, at best, get a decently paid job working for some corporation. Likewise, Jobs on his own couldn't strike it rich without some big breakthrough that comes only from a technical guy like Woz. So they both need each other; but when the alchemy happens and the money rains down, 99.99% of it sticks to the huckster.
" Some of the stuff in it is just plain wrong..."
Now THAT really does call for a citation. Please state what parts of "The Mythical Man-Month" are "just plain wrong".
I think you may have misunderstood the parent's assertion. I think he meant that Wozniak owed whatever wealth and business success he achieved to riding Jobs' coattails.
Ironically, I completely agree with your remark that, without Wozniak, Jobs "probably would have ended up as a used car salesman". (Although even then, he probably would have wound up a billionaire). Unfortunately, due to the way our society is structured, it is NOT the geniuses who are rewarded but the people, like Jobs, who exploit their ideas.
... of anyone discussing the topic? In case everyone has forgotten, that is the attempt by the Marshall Islands to sue the nuclear powers for ignoring their obligations to disarm. Also to sue the USA for exploding nuclear and thermonuclear weapons on its (tiny) territory?
Golf certainly is frustrating. That's quite deliberate, as it makes excelling very difficult and thus worthwhile. Think of it as like a Scottish martial art... taking years to become fairly proficient, and never being sure of reaching that elusive perfection.
But golf is also a spiritual discipline. It teaches you self-control, patience, and sportsmanship. Witness the far better behaviour of professional golfers, compared to soccer players and many other sportsmen.
"Do remember that poison gas is a WMD, and under US policy is treated exactly the same way as nuclear weapons".
In the sense that the USA maintains enormous stocks of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons? Presumably the policy you refer to is "let's have more of them all".
Newsflash: it turns out that rules written on pieces of paper don't actually stop the police from arresting you for parody.
...especially when the person you're parodying is a self-important asshole who happens to have the chief of police in his pocket.
No doubt this "revolution" will be organized on Facebook
(and the police will be waiting with tanks when they arrive to take over the mayors office... Internet surveillance, bitches!)
The image I have in my head right now is Boss Hogg with a big cigar is his hand shouting at some policemen to "do something".
We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts. -- Patrick Moynihan
