Jeeze, why all the hate for Nic Cage on this thread? IMDb lists 120 actor credits. There's crap in there, for sure. There's also a decent measure of so-bad-it's-good-at-least-for-entertainment-purposes. But there's also Leaving Las Vegas (oscar for best actor), Adaptation (oscar nominee for best actor), Moonstruck, Raising Arizona, Pig, Lord of War, .... You can't find anything worthwhile in there?

The sales manager must have been a film studies major and, when it became obvious he'd never actually become an actor, took on being a sales manager to eke a living. But film studies doesn't teach you much about that, so he thought back and tried to find a model for how to do the job. His solution: Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross. I can picture it now: "you gotta have brass balls to sell internet service."

Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon:

The longer the key you are trying to generate, the longer this takes. Randy is trying to generate one that is ridiculously long. He has pointed out to Avi, in an encrypted e-mail message, that if every particle of matter in the universe could be used to construct one single cosmic supercomputer, and this computer was put to work trying to break a 4096-bit encryption key, it would take longer than the lifespan of the universe.

“Using today’s technology,” Avi shot back, “that is true. But what about quantum computers? And what if new mathematical techniques are developed that can simplify the factoring of large numbers?”

“How long do you want these messages to remain secret?” Randy asked, in his last message before leaving San Francisco. “Five years? Ten years? Twenty-five years?”

After he got to the hotel this afternoon, Randy decrypted and read Avi's answer. It is still hanging in front of his eyes, like the after image of a strobe:
I want them to remain secret for as long as men are capable of evil.

When matchsticks are heavily tariffed, only arsonists will have matchsticks.

TFS: "GM said between 30% and 40% of eligible owners continue paying after their included three-year Super Cruise subscription expires." That's more than a small percentage.

On the flip side, it means that 60-70% - well more than half - aren't continuing. They also don't define what "eligible owners" means.

You've owned five phones in the last six years? Either you're lying in saying you've never had issues, or you've not had any one phone long enough for issues to show up. That's like saying "my car's never had issues - I buy a new one every year!"

I wonder what a modern-day sequel to Repo Man would look like today. The ground for social commentary and absurdism is more fertile than ever! We can get Harry Dean Stanton back, right?

That's cool and all. Samsung has done a lot to develop their foldable screens, and it's nice to see them playing around with the form factor.

On the other hand, MSRP $1899?! I don't think I'd be willing to pay even 1/3 that for my next phone. Plus: although the foldable tech is neat in demos, Samsung probably hasn't eliminated the crease problem, nor the fact that the screen's surface is very scratchable plastic. I guess capitalism is gonna do it's thing, and there'll be some folks that'll eat this up. I just won't be one of 'em.

Is that Starbucks' fault, or their customers? I, too, roll my eyes at the hoards that line up for their wickedly expensive, sugary, flavored milk with a hint of coffee, but I guess that's capitalism.

I also drink black coffee exclusively, and Starbucks is not bad for that. Indeed, while I'm on the road, it can oftentimes be the only palatable option (versus Dunkin or black water's at the gas station). If there's a local coffee shop, I'll opt for that, but in plenty of places it's Starbucks or nothin'.

Or, like a good Johnny Cab, self-destruct while trying to murder the fare.

Bond: Ejector Seat? You're joking!

Q: I never joke about my work, 007.

Local models are not risk-free, either

Are you suggesting that an EV's battery is a wear item? The evidence from the field - millions of vehicles fielded over the last two decades - suggests that the battery will outlive the car itself, or last at least as long as the internal combustion engine of a conventional vehicle. (The battery is zero maintenance, too, which cannot be said of the ICE.)

Well, if we're talking about fuel, then yes: electrons are standardized! Heck, even the delivery mechanisms (i.e., the electrical grid) are standardized - at least regionally.

If you're going to complain about EV batteries not being standardized between vehicles, well: try transplanting the fuel tank from a 1999 Silverado into a 2018 BWM, or vice-versa. Or really any of the parts, come to think of it.

If you want to talk about the 12-V batteries in cars - nothing about them except the chemistry and nominal voltage is standard. They kinda come in roughly the same blocky shape, but it's not at all given that you could lift the battery from one vehicle and drop it in another. If you waltz into an auto parts store and say "hey, my car needs a new battery", the clerks will immediately ask for the Year, Make, and Model of the vehicle (sometimes even the trim level). Why is that, if car batteries are as standardized and interchangeable as you think.

The summary talked about the potential challenges of imaging in microgravity, where the imager and the human are more prone to relative movement from floating around. And although astronauts are highly educable, they do not presently get trained as x-ray techs.

A different potential concern could be noise: the image sensor isn't just going to be getting the incident x-rays (after passing through the human) but also catching whatever the ambient background radiation level could be. That could have made the resulting images quite noisy, lowering their diagnostic quality.

A third consideration could be heat. X-Ray sources come in various forms, but often throw off a lot of heat for the amount of light they produce. That heat needs to be pulled from the source and dumped to environment, otherwise the source will burn out quickly. On Earth this can often be done with passive convection. In micro-g, that doesn't work - you may need to incorporate active cooling.

None of these things were likely going to be problems. But until you actually test it in flight, you don't know. The same situation existed for using medical ultrasound in space - it probably would work, but they experimented a bit before deploying it to the ISS.