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Posts: 26945
Jul 31 15 8:55 PM
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
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Posts: 14317
Jul 31 15 9:42 PM
Jul 31 15 10:32 PM
icepick wrote:That would tick me off too Pen.As far as those dolls are concerned, you do know where that design is headed, right? I cannot believe neither the depth of bizarre in many events over the past week or so, nor the sheer number of events. My tolerance for levels of strangeness is being severely tested right now.Tim
Jul 31 15 11:27 PM
Aug 5 15 9:26 AM
"I have a hard time saying this with a straight face, but I will: You can teleport a single atom from one place to another," says Chris Monroe, a biophysicist at the University of Maryland. His lab's setup in a university basement looks nothing like the slick transporters that rearrange atoms and send them someplace else on Star Trek. Instead, a couple million dollars' worth of lasers, mirrors and lenses lay sprawled across a 20-foot table. "What they do in the TV show is, they send the atoms over a long distance," says David Hucul, who recently got his Ph.D. with Monroe. "But, really — if you could build anything, you wouldn't send the atoms." That's because atoms are big and heavy, and you don't really need them, he explains. The laws of physics say that any atom of carbon is identical to any other atom of carbon. Oxygen, hydrogen and so on: They're all perfect atomic clones.
"I have a hard time saying this with a straight face, but I will: You can teleport a single atom from one place to another," says Chris Monroe, a biophysicist at the University of Maryland.
His lab's setup in a university basement looks nothing like the slick transporters that rearrange atoms and send them someplace else on Star Trek. Instead, a couple million dollars' worth of lasers, mirrors and lenses lay sprawled across a 20-foot table.
"What they do in the TV show is, they send the atoms over a long distance," says David Hucul, who recently got his Ph.D. with Monroe. "But, really — if you could build anything, you wouldn't send the atoms."
That's because atoms are big and heavy, and you don't really need them, he explains. The laws of physics say that any atom of carbon is identical to any other atom of carbon. Oxygen, hydrogen and so on: They're all perfect atomic clones.
Aug 5 15 2:31 PM
LAST month, luxury car maker Lexus released a teaser for what it claimed was a real-life hoverboard. While there was obvious excitement following the video, many questioned its authenticity because no one was actually filmed standing on the hoverboard.Now, those questions have been answered, with Lexus releasing a new video showing professional skateboarder Ross McGouran attempting to ride the device.The hoverboard functions by using liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors and permanent magnets, meaning it will only work when placed above a metal track or surface.Luckily, Lexus found a skate park that was built with metal underneath the concrete and was able to let McGouran sample the goods. On first impressions, the device looks impressive and can hover while supporting human weight as promised.However, it does appear average Joes won’t be shredding the gnar on the hoverboard anytime soon, because even McGouran struggled to grasp the device and he is a professional.Despite a number of tumbles, McGouran was eventually able to stick some impressive stunts like dropping in a ramp before riding across water and jumping a kicker gap over a Lexus car.There might be more work needed to get the board ready for commercial use, but we are excited nonetheless.
LAST month, luxury car maker Lexus released a teaser for what it claimed was a real-life hoverboard.
While there was obvious excitement following the video, many questioned its authenticity because no one was actually filmed standing on the hoverboard.
Now, those questions have been answered, with Lexus releasing a new video showing professional skateboarder Ross McGouran attempting to ride the device.
The hoverboard functions by using liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors and permanent magnets, meaning it will only work when placed above a metal track or surface.
Luckily, Lexus found a skate park that was built with metal underneath the concrete and was able to let McGouran sample the goods.
On first impressions, the device looks impressive and can hover while supporting human weight as promised.
However, it does appear average Joes won’t be shredding the gnar on the hoverboard anytime soon, because even McGouran struggled to grasp the device and he is a professional.
Despite a number of tumbles, McGouran was eventually able to stick some impressive stunts like dropping in a ramp before riding across water and jumping a kicker gap over a Lexus car.
There might be more work needed to get the board ready for commercial use, but we are excited nonetheless.
Read more @ http://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/professional-skateboarder-ross-mcgouran-demonstrates-the-lexus-hoverboard-in-action/story-fnjwucti-1227470623314
Aug 6 15 1:10 AM
Aug 11 15 7:24 AM
What do we know about the secret world of espionage and intelligence, and how do we know it? The story that connects James Bond and Edward Snowden, fiction and reality, thrilling romance and profound cynicism or disillusionment, has been told over many years and in many ways. I’ve been thinking about this since seeing the new Tom Cruise movie “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” but this really isn’t a movie review and I wouldn’t argue that this capably crafted thriller from writer and director Christopher McQuarrie (who also directed Cruise in “Jack Reacher”) breaks any new ground or represents the ultimate distillation of anything. It’s a diverting ride, played out against spectacular locations, that repackages a whole bunch of familiar elements and attitudes: A little latter-day Bond, a little Jason Bourne, a little John le Carré, a little 1950s Hitchcock. What strikes me on a larger scale is the way that the “Mission: Impossible” franchise and many other fictional properties have served as gradual ideological conditioning, acclimating us to the rise of the national or global security apparatus. I don’t exactly mean that the whole universe of espionage fiction is a sinister concoction designed to brainwash the public – although, in the case of the fictional Agent 007 and his semi-fictional creator, former British intelligence agent Ian Fleming, that unquestionably played a role. (Allen Dulles, who headed the CIA under Dwight Eisenhower, was a huge fan of Fleming’s books, and reportedly tried to get the agency’s technicians to produce real-world versions of the famous Bond gizmos. They never worked.) It would be more accurate to say that spy fiction reflects a genuine moral confusion about the role of secret agents in modern society, but has generally succeeded only in worsening that confusion. A film like “Rogue Nation” simultaneously congratulates us for our clear-eyed skepticism about government and our loss of faith in institutions while insisting on primal movie myths about the incorruptible individual and the noble band of brothers. We may no longer feel quite sure about America or democracy or capitalism or morality or any such grand abstractions, but somewhere out there amid all the lies and chaos, Tom Cruise and other unstoppable and immortal heroes are doing the right thing – even if we have no idea what that might be. Even the movie’s subtitle provides an epistemological clue to this puzzle, if only through its total vagueness and meaninglessness. OK, yes, spoiler alert: But the “rogue nation” in this movie is not Iran or Russia or any other recognized nation-state with borders and generals. (It certainly isn’t China, since this movie was partly made with Chinese production funding, the not-so-secret channel of money that is not-so-subtly transforming Hollywood.) In fact, I can’t quite tell you what the term means in McQuarrie’s fictional universe. Maybe it refers to a sinister shadow version of the recognized intelligence agencies that is working to destabilize the world, in the old-school vein of Hydra and SMERSH. But as we know both from fiction and the real world, the boundaries between those things are none too clear and it can become difficult for intelligence operatives to tell which side of the looking-glass they’re on.
What do we know about the secret world of espionage and intelligence, and how do we know it? The story that connects James Bond and Edward Snowden, fiction and reality, thrilling romance and profound cynicism or disillusionment, has been told over many years and in many ways. I’ve been thinking about this since seeing the new Tom Cruise movie “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” but this really isn’t a movie review and I wouldn’t argue that this capably crafted thriller from writer and director Christopher McQuarrie (who also directed Cruise in “Jack Reacher”) breaks any new ground or represents the ultimate distillation of anything. It’s a diverting ride, played out against spectacular locations, that repackages a whole bunch of familiar elements and attitudes: A little latter-day Bond, a little Jason Bourne, a little John le Carré, a little 1950s Hitchcock.
What strikes me on a larger scale is the way that the “Mission: Impossible” franchise and many other fictional properties have served as gradual ideological conditioning, acclimating us to the rise of the national or global security apparatus. I don’t exactly mean that the whole universe of espionage fiction is a sinister concoction designed to brainwash the public – although, in the case of the fictional Agent 007 and his semi-fictional creator, former British intelligence agent Ian Fleming, that unquestionably played a role. (Allen Dulles, who headed the CIA under Dwight Eisenhower, was a huge fan of Fleming’s books, and reportedly tried to get the agency’s technicians to produce real-world versions of the famous Bond gizmos. They never worked.) It would be more accurate to say that spy fiction reflects a genuine moral confusion about the role of secret agents in modern society, but has generally succeeded only in worsening that confusion.
A film like “Rogue Nation” simultaneously congratulates us for our clear-eyed skepticism about government and our loss of faith in institutions while insisting on primal movie myths about the incorruptible individual and the noble band of brothers. We may no longer feel quite sure about America or democracy or capitalism or morality or any such grand abstractions, but somewhere out there amid all the lies and chaos, Tom Cruise and other unstoppable and immortal heroes are doing the right thing – even if we have no idea what that might be.
Even the movie’s subtitle provides an epistemological clue to this puzzle, if only through its total vagueness and meaninglessness. OK, yes, spoiler alert: But the “rogue nation” in this movie is not Iran or Russia or any other recognized nation-state with borders and generals. (It certainly isn’t China, since this movie was partly made with Chinese production funding, the not-so-secret channel of money that is not-so-subtly transforming Hollywood.) In fact, I can’t quite tell you what the term means in McQuarrie’s fictional universe. Maybe it refers to a sinister shadow version of the recognized intelligence agencies that is working to destabilize the world, in the old-school vein of Hydra and SMERSH. But as we know both from fiction and the real world, the boundaries between those things are none too clear and it can become difficult for intelligence operatives to tell which side of the looking-glass they’re on.
Read more @ http://tinyurl.com/o76lj5v
Aug 11 15 12:12 PM
Aug 11 15 4:42 PM
icepick wrote:And even that piece delves too far into self agenda, thereby failing to address the quandary our modern world is in, and needs desperately to address. Our problem is that we want it both ways ............... the protection and the privacy.
What strikes me on a larger scale is the way that the “Mission: Impossible” franchise and many other fictional properties have served as gradual ideological conditioning, acclimating us to the rise of the national or global security apparatus. I don’t exactly mean that the whole universe of espionage fiction is a sinister concoction designed to brainwash the public – although, in the case of the fictional Agent 007 and his semi-fictional creator, former British intelligence agent Ian Fleming, that unquestionably played a role.
Aug 12 15 5:46 AM
Aug 12 15 8:42 AM
icepick wrote:It's all wrong Pen. On all sides. That's what I'm saying. I would choose the privacy side of this in a second, and let me take care of myself and mine ................ except I know that I have to think of everybody else too, and people haven't raised their kids to know how to do that in such a very long time ............. society has placed us in one helluva pickle. And I don't know if we can blame any one faction or not. Sometimes I think people really do need somebody else to do every little thing for them. This is not good, and I don't know what we can do about it.
Aug 12 15 11:50 AM
Aug 12 15 1:52 PM
icepick wrote:And, as you can see, it's only going to get worse. Perhaps wrong on all sides wasn't putting it correctly. I do have a tendency to be unforgiving when people seek to manipulate and take advantage. Parents do need to start teaching their kids again .............. before the government removes the privilege ....... er, right.
Aug 12 15 5:37 PM
Posts: 1814
Aug 12 15 8:45 PM
Aug 12 15 8:50 PM
Aug 13 15 1:27 PM
The selfie symptomatic of the rise of a nation of narcissists
I WAS at a mountain retreat. The scenery was breathtaking. A group of teenagers came onto the timber deck and were blown away by the view. “Wow”, they gasped bringing out their mobiles. And then they started snapping their faces and each other’s, all making kissy-pouty lips and donkey ears with their fingers, hats pulled down over faces, breasts pushed forward. The Facebook page would surely tell us they were at the Golden Mountain lookout and “it was awesome and amazing” but their heads and breasts would block any view. It would easy to describe the behaviour as self-obsessed and exhibitionist. But the issue is more complex than that. And far more troubling. If one is to take the word of experts who are looking into the behaviour of young people, we are looking at a selfie-led Armageddon. The end of society as we know it. We are breeding a generation of potentially ruthless narcissists who might not develop empathetic centres in their brains. Lack of empathy is what causes much destructive and aberrant behaviour in our society.
I WAS at a mountain retreat. The scenery was breathtaking. A group of teenagers came onto the timber deck and were blown away by the view. “Wow”, they gasped bringing out their mobiles. And then they started snapping their faces and each other’s, all making kissy-pouty lips and donkey ears with their fingers, hats pulled down over faces, breasts pushed forward.
The Facebook page would surely tell us they were at the Golden Mountain lookout and “it was awesome and amazing” but their heads and breasts would block any view.
It would easy to describe the behaviour as self-obsessed and exhibitionist. But the issue is more complex than that. And far more troubling. If one is to take the word of experts who are looking into the behaviour of young people, we are looking at a selfie-led Armageddon. The end of society as we know it. We are breeding a generation of potentially ruthless narcissists who might not develop empathetic centres in their brains. Lack of empathy is what causes much destructive and aberrant behaviour in our society.
Read more @ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/health-wellbeing/the-selfie-symptomatic-of-the-rise-of-a-nation-of-narcissists/story-fnr5f5xi-1227273598036
Aug 13 15 7:32 PM