metadigital

... a per milli system then. " (Per-millum? )

I pray that the Lord God Albert Einstein will save us from such a fate ...

Sounds like she's on the set of a FPS conversion to a film ...

I'm sorry I can't agree with this "pragmatic science is best" approach. There are innumerable seemingly intractable problems that were solved due to some totally random benefit from research in a different sphere of science. The corollory of your attitude is that "someone" decides what is worth researching in science, which is impractical at best and immoral at worst. This is not just research into preserving people who have lost blood, it is a possible way to preserve organ donors (which is very difficult) and even the recipients! As Kaftan said, there have been examples (not contrived!) in recent times where people have been submerged in sub-zero water for long periods of time and survived. I recall a child (around the Canadian-US border, IIRC) that was revived after hours. As to people discussing the affect on the soul: these bodies aren't dead. Clincally, the autonomic system has shut down, but you have the same issues with people revived with defibrolators: do you believe these people have lost their original souls?

It is the Force working against you, youngling; the Force is predestiny ...

French ships sighted in the Wes. Friends of the Caliph have reported sighting French Naval Warships patrolling the Western Mediterranean. No contact ws made, but it is clear that the unprotected shores of Spain and Africa are being scoped for possible invasion. STOP

You are confusing NATIONALISM with ALTRUISM. I would hope that any definition of patriotism includes more of the latter and less of the former.

Hate to break it to you, but that's old news. (Maybe if you read a bit more ... )

Or get off your comic-reading ass and do it yourself.

You need to increase influence with Bao-Dur to trigger a conversation, and that means he needs to accompany you ... CATCH-22

You should post all KotOR3 suggestions and comments (however appropriate, bizarre or idiotic) in the thread provided in the General Forum.

Nah, Patrick Stewart or Yul Brenner are both better choices.

Well, if you ask a patriot, I'm sure they will tell you they are fighting for an IDEAL, not an ideology.

Countdown is one of the last brain-gym-type tv programmes left. (Just look at that tragic Dcikhead and Dom remake of the Generation Game. ) I am yet to get a nine-letter word ...

Interesting, what we can extrapolate (with whatever degree of precision and accuracy you wish to ascribe ) is the exitence, prevalence and (eventually) the life cycle of a meme! I expect the "Jedi" response will fade with the popularity of the films and the ageing of the respondents, so we will see this meme's presence in society gradually fade. Fascinating. We have no idea what future generations will be mining from our data.

As someone (mentioning no names, Ender) spammed the "Do you like Maths" thread, earlier, I have performed some threadromancy on this venerable favourite. Reading the Sunday Times, there is a new book out from Lisa Randall called Membranes and higher dimensions. It is intersting because in it, she propounds her theory of the higher dimensions and how our four dimensional universe -- called a "brane", as in a membrane -- may exist in a much larger reality -- called a "bulk" -- much the same way as a page (our universe, or brane) fits into a large book (bulk). What is interesting about her theory is that -- in contrast to the earlier proponents in the late twentieth century -- e.g. gravity, can travel between these branes, and so our universe may be subject to our neighbouring branes. This is pretty exciting for physicists trying to understand why gravity is such a weak force, comparitively: perhaps it is leaking away into the bulk, so that the force we feel here in our universe is just a residual ghost. While these theories are familiar to SF fans (e.g. in Star Trek), the theories are now used to predict behaviours with equations. (We'll have to get the book for the equations, unless someone can google it faster than me ...). Reference: WARPED PASSAGES Unravelling the Universe's Hidden Dimensions, by [Professor] Lisa Randall.

... But big stompy robots! ...

Get a bigger screen, faster CPU and better mouse ... and practice ... and drink loads of coffee and insulflate anything that might positively adjust reaction times ...

Great articles. I particularly liked the cold fusion one (not just because I remember vividly the controversy of the last cold fusion claim ), because I liked this quote: ... For the time being, don't expect fusion to become a readily available energy option. The current cold fusion apparatus still takes much more energy to start up than you get back out, and it may never end up breaking even. In the mean time, the crystal-fusion device might be used as a compact source of neutrons and X-rays, something that could turn out to be useful making small scanning machines. But it really may not be long until we have the first nuclear fusion-powered devices in common use. ... (my emphasis). I am wearied by the constant dictum that science should be pragmatic, that any "blue sky" research-for the-sake-of-it is contra-indicated; sure the most capital is generated by the practical applications of new technology; but if we don't keep investing in "dream science" -- what is the SF of today -- then we are only lessening our mutual scientific inheritence in ways we cannot even imagine.

What a great site. I hadn't seen this before: Adams' GPP

There's a bunch of captured asteroids that are all vying to be a tenth planet after Pluto in the Kuiper Belt (mentioned in the article) and the Oort Cloud. The fact that its orbit is so irregularly eliptical means it is difficult to include it as a planet: It is currently 90 times the Earth-Sun distance away (149 million km or 93 million miles), but its orbit can take it 10 times further away still. (Yes, I know that Pluto has an eliptical orbit that, during the last twenty years of the last century, meant that Neptune was the furtherest planet from the Sun.) I guess it would come down to the plane that the planetoid rotates in (as all our Solar System planets orbit in the same plane). Another good (older) Sci-Am article about it

It's not for the PC I like the tradegian ... ... Still the four main characters all sound like extras from an aryan slumber party ...

What's his number?

Of course he will. (I just had to play it again, it is so funny.) Re: your raping friends; there is nothing else for it, you just have to buy a top-of-the-range computer and monitor and joystick and practice eight-to-ten hours a day until you can rape them.

Yep, Civ 2 was a better game, imo (I haven't played Alpha Centauri, so perhaps that is better than Civ2: certainly it sounds better than Civ3). I heard that Civ4 won't let spies let off tactical nukes in enemy cities. Your point about genocide and bad lessons is interesting, but if you look at war throughout history (apart from a few romantic battles in the middle ages) war was about genocide. The Romans were past masters at this: they would raze a rebellious settlement as an example to their neighbours. In the long run, this "cruel to be kind" (tongue firmly in cheek) tactic actually did prevent more bloodshed (the end justified the means?), as the Roman Republic and Empire yielded Pax Romana. Of course the genocides of previous millennia are nothing compared to the percentage of civilian casualties seen in the last century, rising from in the order of 10% to 90% ...